The growth of the computer industry has been truly amazing. Nonexistent forty years ago, the computer seems to be here to stay and to become a part of our lives just as television, radio, and the automobile did before it in this century, and as the plow, the wheel, and the tool did in prehistory. Each of these is a tool, a method by which humans perform work, whether it be an interaction with the environment or each other. As each basic tool has been introduced, society and culture have been irrevocably changed. In every case, the tool is just a tool; how humans use it determines whether it is beneficial or detrimental to society. Sociologists are only now turning their gaze at this newest tool in our culture, trying to determine its impacts on existing structures and helping to formulate guidelines for future development and use. Recently published by McFarland & Company is a collection of papers on this subject entitled Social and Ethical Effects of the Computer Revolution, edited by Joseph Migga Kizza.

I'm not going to try and fool you into thinking this is entertaining reading, although some of you might find it so. Kizza and his contributors are academics who are both avidly interested in the subject, yet also writing for publication. Some of the articles here suffer the usual problems of academic writing: belaboring the obvious, repetitious, lecturing rather than discussing, and the inevitable "more research will be needed." For readers willing to persevere, however, there are some jewels hidden here. First off, skip "The Development of the 'Killer Robot' and Professor Cleareye, Outstanding Teacher Award Recipient" by Richard Gary Epstein, even though it looks to have potential. You are better off not having to suffer the poorly written fiction describing Professor Cleareye; Epstein may be an excellect computer studies teacher, but I wouldn't take a class in creative writing from him. Do, however, take a dive into "The Internet and Ethics: Dilemma and Decisions for Institutions of Higher Education," a study by B.C. Chic Day and Pat C. Day that describes their study of a hypothetical study viewing pornography on the Internet using university resources. Their findings illustrate that, while most students understand the ethics of the situation, a firm policy regarding the university's actions in this event are required by both new and older students. Similar in nature is the study by Andrew B. Morris ("Effective Information Management: A Question of Ethics?"), worthwhile reading for Information Technology managers having to deal with fresh college recruits. Morris study effectively gives you a window into the current ethical thought of today's graduates.

There are other useful articles for IT managers and workers elsewhere in this volume, including the entire section on "Software Reliability and Computer Security." The three articles that make up this section elaborate various cases for information management responsibility in a world increasingly dependent on both the functions of software and the storage of data. The section entitled "The Professions and the Workplace Issues" details various stances on the issues of professional accountability for information workers, including the possible establishment of a certification system (now handled informally by software vendors for their various products, such as the Novell Netware Certified Engineer certification, rather than by an independent association such as those for lawyers and medical doctors). Looking towards the future, the authors of the articles within "Artificial Intelligence and Cyberspace" attempt to codify what we mean by human values versus the possible mechanistic values inherent in our systems. While this may seem the stuff of science fiction and true artificial intelligence may never emerge from the laboratory, it is imperative that AI is not created independent of human ideas.

Social and Ethical Effects of the Computer Revolution is not meant for the general reader. It is a specialized book that is useful for both computer academics and information management professionals as a means to shape the future role of computer technology. Likely to be best utilized as a textbook in a class on information technology ethics, it should also be read by IT managers who make long-range plans regarding systems growth and future use, including those on the governing boards of the Internet and Internet access policy makers. Likely the first volume of many to follow, this book is a good start to the necessary codification needed in this newborn field.

There are two many good books out there that cover this topic. This one is average and unless you own it I would not pick it up.

This review is based on pre-publication manuscripts that Dr. Brosilow used in his undergraduate Process Control course in Chemical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. I was in his class. Dr. Brosilow was a poor lecturer and his manuscripts were poorer.

Each chapter seemed far too unrelated to the others. It did not seem to build a concrete body of knowledge but rather to drift from topic to topic without clear purpose. How is Model State Feedback related to other implementations of model based control? When, practically speaking is it best to use a particular control regime in a particular process? I wish I could say I learned these things from the text, but I certainly did not. Additionally, the text and the problems were usually very abstract. Only rarely would all the mathematics be incorporated into a description or problem involving an actual chemical process.

I hope that the published edition has been heaviliy edited and altered. It is with that hope that I award two stars to this book. Based on my experience with a (pre-publication form of) this book, I would have to give it only a single star.

Well written but gets boring reading the same old rehash warmed over with a different person's opinions. Nothing new here, I'm afraid, just a repeat.

This is not the book that unviels mysterees. The ritual moniter also available from this publisher details initiations and preperations. this book is not for that. most people will be more interest4ed in the accompanying catolog. however for those not looking for more secret words and genuinly interested in the search, this books stands by itself. this is geared towards those trying to smooth the proverbial stone. Atleast i thought the chapter on the square was well rounded! i would recomend this book to any one interested in the afore mentioned subjects. it is displayed in dissertation and poetry. the real strength of this book ist its symbolism and the gained perspective in the end.

This book provides basic background information on Turner's progression as an artist, and it does contain a nice selection of Turner's landscapes. However, the reproductions are poor in quality, hardly doing the authentic works justice.

This is a collection of essays and illustrations concerning vertical transport in buildings, principally the elevator. The best way of describing it is to list the topics of the various essays: By my count, there are 13 pages on the history of elevators, 3 pages on notions of ascension in religious tradition, 3 pages on the ridiculous notion of connecting orbiting satelites to the surface of the earth by elevators to accomodate sightseers(!), 20 pages on the elevator in art and literature, 10 pages on the elevator in film, 2 pages on engineering aspects of elevator control, 7 pages on escalators, and 7 pages on paternosters. Obviously, this is quite a mish-mash of essays that are only tangentially related to each other. The entire book has 144 pages, with most of the rest given over to photographs, which seem to have been chosen for eye appeal rather than for explanatory value.

This last section on paternosters was the most interesting, and had information that would be hard to find anywhere else. A paternoster is an endless chain running from top to bottom of a building; imagine a vertical conveyer belt. Attached to this belt or chain are numerous elevator cabs. The belt moves at a slow but constant rate of speed without ever stopping, and the numerous elevator cabs move up and down through the building. There are no protective doors; users jump on and off at will. The paternoster seems to have been limited to Europe, and even there it's becoming obsolete due to the safety problems.

The book was designed to be arty and has a pretentious air about it. The 9 by 13 inch format is awkward. Especially irritating is that photo captions and footnotes are vertical on the page, at right angles to the words of the essays. It looks like a clever approach to graphic design until you actually start to read it. As noted above, there are a huge number of full-page photos, which add to the book's aesthetic flair but are not always the best use of page space.

How does one categorize such a book? It defies pigeonholing. For the person interested in this esoteric topic of architectural history, it may be worth a look, but there are certainly shortcomings as well.

This is simply a disorganized summation of business and political news stories in Vietnam. I tried to use this book in writing a thesis about recent political and economic reforms in Vietnam, but, because it lacks organization and analysis, found it useless.

The description sounds promising, but I was very disappointed. The author leads you very slowly, with his coddling 'Mr. Rogers' voice that would sound unnatural in any setting except leading a meditation. There are a few great techniques, but it takes a lot of patience to endure the entire series, which I did. On the other hand, I DO recommend "The Sound of your voice", also sold at Amazon. OK, there are a few corny lapses, but there are *plenty* of real-world examples, lots of excercises, and the delivery is very dynamic. Check it out.

Prof. Singal has an interesting thesis here, one well worth exploring, but his book needs more focus. Singal wanders from psychobiography (including some ill-fitting speculation into Faulkner's neurological problems!) to literary analysis to critiques of other Faulkner critics. Singal ends his study when it reaches the midpoint of Faulkner's career, essentially saying that Faulkner did not write anything interesting after 1942 or so--and while this well may be a valid opinion, asserting it without substantiating it is a cop-out. At times I felt I was reading the work of a talented undergrad rather than that of a tenured professor.

Readers interested in more rigorous studies of Faulkner's life and works should stick with Blotner's *Faulkner: A Biography*, Brooks's *WF: The Yoknapatawpha Country*, and Frederick Karl's relatively recent *WF: American Writer*.