I bought this book after reading the previous reviews. I am a QA engineer working in OO systems, and I must say that I did not find this book to all that great. It is a good book, but I found it to be a bit theoretical. I would have welcomed more practical tips say on how to do performance testing on multitier systems, how do you adapt these concepts on hybrid systems etc.

I have several books on software testing, but none of them provides the comprehensive, in-depth coverage of testing that this book provides. No software developer or test engineer working with OO techniques should be about it!

I have nearly twenty years experience in IT, 12 in OO. this by far and away the most clear, useful and thought provoking work I have ever read on testing.

Anyone in the OO world who is serious about testing and has not read this book is a fraud.

The sad thing about this book is that those who need to read it probably will not.

I home educate my 12-year-old son, so I need a textbook that gives clear explanations, includes plenty of worked examples, and provides answers to the exercises so I can check his work. This textbook is brilliantly clear and perfectly suited to independent study. Answers are provided for odd-numbered exercises only, but there are so many exercises at the end of each chapter that this has never been a problem for us: we just do all the odd-numbered exercises. Each chapter also has a chapter test and a set of cumulative review exercises at the end, for which answers to ALL of the problems are provided. This is an extremely useful feature for home educators. At the end of the book there is a cumulative test of the whole book, for which answers to every problem are provided, so you can do a thorough review with no uncertainty about marking. You could also use the final test as a pre-test to determine what areas you need to work on, if you're trying to fill in gaps from an unsuccessful school course. I only wish we could find textbooks of this quality for our other subjects!

I am looking for this book ISBN 0-321-06192-6

This is the most beautiful math textbook I've ever seen. To each chapter there are many examples that show clearly what is covered. In the problem solving questions, some are based on real life. The only little problem is that the answers at the back to the exercises are odd-numbered! I use it as a homework textbook for a math programme and I NEVER get stuck on it!

The discovery of the alien Grazer in Central Park seems, at first, to be just an average nuisance. That is until MiB agents Jay and Elle discover a horrifying truth. Someone dressed in black has invited the most loathsome lifeforms in the galaxy to come and eat. This causes troubles on two fronts. The first being that the Grazers are addicted to earth plants, and once they start eating they cannot stop until they run out of food. The second it that each and every lifeform in the galaxy takes the invitation as a personal slight, so vast armadas begin flocking to Earth to give its inhabitants a taste of their rage. Earth is doomed, unless MiB agents Jay and Elle can root out just who is responsible for this horrible act.

There are pluses and minuses to this MiB spin-off novel, which seems to be, sadly, the last. On the plus side is that author Dean Wesley Smith, after an uneven, albeit an entertaining one, start in The Green Saliva Blues, seems far more comfortable with the characters and the silly world that they inhabit. The story moves quickly and maintains its tension and does not wear out its welcome. The downside, and the biggest hint as to why these books did not catch on, is that The Grazer Conspiracy is a retread of the fist story. Yet again a reviled alien species camps out on Earth for a feeding frenzy and massive armies of angry aliens threaten the world. The only real difference is that, instead of maneating trees, we get plant eating aliens. Clearly the options for stories were beginning to run dry. Despite that, The Grazer Conspiracy is a fun ride well worth taking for MiB fans. Recommended.

This book is a lot better than Green Saliva Blues. The plot is well constructed and provides a lot of tension, above all towards the end. The characters lack personality, though, they are types, not full blooded human beings - so this makes the book a satire on the genre "men-better-than-aliens-if not-help-from-the-gods". The humor is just a little bit forced, though.

I have read 'THe Green Slaiva Blues' (also a GREAT book) and this is antoher testament to Smtih's great contrbution to the MiB universe. The wit between Jay and Elle totaly make up for the absense of Kay.

In this debut mystery, Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson has recently transferred from London to the port town of Tradmouth. Just prior to his transfer, the Tradmouth police are faced with a kidnapping of a small boy by person or persons unknown. On Peterson's first day on the new job, a woman is found brutally murdered in the local park. The first thing the police must do is identify her. Also, archaeologists working on a dig of an Elizabethan merchant's house find a skeleton in what they think is the cellar. Finally, Peterson's wife begins visiting a local medical clinic in an effort to get pregnant and he must be present at several appointments. Peterson had expected a laid back kind of life in the countryside, but Tradmouth's criminals keep him and his colleagues busy.

In the hands of a lesser writer, juggling four distinct stories might turn into a confusing morass. Ellis, however, pulls it off and keeps the readers' interest sustained in all three stories. She is able to deftly pull the stories together at the end. Peterson is an interesting and likable character - well rounded with interests (archaeology to be specific) other than police work. The minor characters are also likable, and one hopes that they will be fleshed out in future books.

While not strictly a historical mystery, one of the four stories is set in Elizabethan Tradmouth and adds piquancy to the modern-day stories. This has all the potential of being a first-class series - part procedural, part historical, part cozy. This is an excellent start.

I like this series immensely. There are three books out so far (the
last one "Unhallowed Grave" has only recently been published
in the UK); and in all three mysteries, Kate Ellis blends a
contemporary mystery with that of a historical one. And she does it
brilliantly. You know that the solution to one will link you with the
solution to the other, and it makes for an enjoyable and interesting
read to see if you, the reader, can see the solution before either Sgt
Wesley Peterson of the Tradmouth CID, or Neil Watson of the County
Archaeological Unit.

In this instance, Tradmouth CID is stretched
thin trying to find a missing child and solve the murder of an
unidentified young woman whose face has been horribly
disfigured. Meanwhile, the County Archaeological Unit while escavating
a 17th century house make a grissly find: the skeletons of a baby and
an adult from that period. The intuitive reader will at once realise
that both mysteries are linked in some way. But how?

The central
motif of this mystery in that of the relationship between mother and
child. What a woman feels at her failure to conceive a child; the fear
of losing a child; and how she copes with the death of a child.

This
is a really good series with great characters. My only complaint is
that with all these interesting personalities-- Patterson, Watson et
al-- the book seems hardly long enough to give them each the focus
they deserve. However this series is a winner and I recommend all the
three books.

Well executed tale about Wesley Peterson, a black English detective in an interracial marriage, who moves his wife Pamela and his job from London to the English countryside. His first day on the Tradmouth police force presents Wesley with a gruesome murder and a seemingly unrelated case of a missing child. On the other side of town his long time friend and archeologist Neil (who happens to be Pamela's former lover) has unearthed an unidentified skeleton from what used to be a 17th century merchant's house. Little does Wesley realize that the skeleton may be the key to solving his murder case, as well as the case involving the missing child.

Also intriguing is the 17th Century diary of John Banized, the merchant whose home Neil is now excavating. We are greeted with excerpts from John's diary at the beginning of each chapter, and this creates a whole other story line that is just as compelling and suspenseful as the main plot.

I was fascinated by the multi layers of this novel. Ellis very deftly draws the reader into two story lines simultaneously. The medieval plot of John Banized's infidelity and his ominous secret is unfolding just as rapidly as Wesley Peterson's missing child and murder cases. There is also a premise that evolves around children...infertility, greed and desperation. But I won't say too much about that here. Just suffice it to say that this is a very well written and enjoyable mystery with unrelenting suspense. I consider it one of those rare finds that you always look forward to discovering on a rainy day.

Enjoy.

On May 24, 1869, Major John W. Powell, a one-armed veteran of the Civil War, along with nine others (geologists, geographers, scouts and adventurers), set out from Green River, Wyoming to explore the last great unmapped and unknown portion of the continental U.S. No man had ever descended the Colorado river as it cut its way through 1,000 miles of incredibly rugged badlands. However, Powell and his band of men completed a remarkable journey of exploration through this country.

A passage from Powell's narrative of the expedition, after they had been on the river nearly two months, conveys very well a perspective of the challenge Powell and his men faced, the courage they demonstrated and Powell's matter of fact, but powerful writing style.

"We are now ready to start on our way down the Great Unknown. Our boats, tied to a common stake, chafe each other as they are tossed by the fretful river. They ride high and buoyant, for their loads are lighter than we could desire. We have but a month's rations remaining. The flour has been resifted through the mosquito-net sieve; the spoiled bacon has been dried and the worst of it boiled; the few pounds of dried apples have been spread in the sun and reshrunken to their normal bulk. The sugar has all melted and gone on its way down the river. But we have a large sack of coffee. The lightening of the boats has this advantage--they will ride the waves better; and we shall have but little to carry when we make a portage. We are three quarters of a mile in the depths of the earth and the great river shrinks into insignificance as it dashes its angry waves against the walls and cliffs that rise to the world above. The waves are but puny ripples. We are but pigmies, running up and down among the sands or lost among the boulders. We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not. What rocks beset the channel, we know not. What walls rise over the river, we know not. Ah, well! We may conjecture many things. The men talk as cheerfully as ever. To me, the cheer is somber and the jests ghastly."

This book is a classic tale of exploration and discovery!

John Wesley Powell, for better or worse, made the American West what it is today. He was the primary founder of the Bureau of Reclamation, the agency that has vandalized the West, and of the United States Geological Service. He also completed the last great feat of exploration on American soil when he and his cohorts undertook the voyage that is the main subject of this book. That the book combines two voyages into one epic adventure is not widely known, but it does not detract from the narrative to any meaningful extent.

Powell's narrative of the so-called Grand Canyon voyage is simply, yet powerfully, written, even carrying touches of the poetic. It is easy to sense his feelings of awe and wonder, particularly in exploring the canyons themselves. Powell never put his main function, scientific discovery, out of mind until the race through the Grand Canyon became one against the calendar as well as the power of the river. Even then, his writing evidences a sense of charity and concern toward his men.

Powell's narrative evokes many vivid memories of the beauty and timelessness of the country he explored, particularly his writings on the now-vanished Glen Canyon. It seems a pity, somehow, that much of what he saw is buried under stagnant, polluted reservoirs, the worst of which ironically carries his name. Would this brilliant, feeling man approve? I do not think so.

The growing recognition of the role native Americans have played in our country's history and development would find a more sympathetic vein with Powell, and his studies of ethnography and acclimatation to the arid habitat by native Americans may prove a more lasting memoir. These parts of the book should be read with equal care.

As to the canyons themselves, Powell would be the first to tell you that the artificial plug of stone at Page, Arizona, is only temporary, and that, as with the volcanic debris at Lava Falls, the river will soon have its way again.

makes you feel like you are there, check out the song mr. powell by the ozark mountain daredevils.

I saw Zia Wesley-Hosford give a speech in San Antonio Texas in April. She said she sold her cosmetic company 6 years ago and that the company changed the formulation so now she's alergic to a product that carries her name on it! She says now she uses Sensé, a product manufactured by USANA Health Sciences, Inc. Her skin is unbelievably beautiful given her age and she claims she has never had a facelift. She certainly appears to know what shes talking about.

Nothing much else new in this book that you don't already know, but the skin care is good advice. I've been using her basic ideas for years and the results are good.

Zia offers lots of wisdom in taking care of your mind, body and face as you move into your mid-years and beyond. While Zia products are some of the best I've ever used, she offers suggestions on other products. An excellent resource!

Longman Language Activator is fantastic. Other dictionaries are useful when you're reading a book and don't know the meaning of a word. But when you want to write, they're useless.
With Language Activator you can find the right word for what you want to say. For instance, you want to say "X is guilty" but you're looking for a better way to put it into words. So you open your dictionary and find an entry for "guilty". You are presented with a lot of words and expressions to choose from. Guilty, responsible, culpable, the culprit, incriminate and so on. There's an explanation to help you choose the best word to express your ideas. Now you can confidently write "X is the culprit" or "X is responsible for...", whatever suits your ideas fine. I use it all the time. My book is falling to pieces.

For centuries, ESL learners have been familiar to use the traditional or "passive" dictionary but things have changed and things will be changed with the publication of this innovative or "active" dictionary. It gives the leaner the helpful tool to SPEAK and to WRITE actively.

I totally agree with a reviewer's statement that, we, as intermediate and advanced ESL Learners, always have the feeling that there must be at least a better/more suitable word to express exactly what do we really mean in a given situation, in writing or in speaking. We all have wondered where to find that word and more importantly, why to choose that word. This dictionary helps me get rid of that feeling by giving me the exact words I want to convey in every particular situation.

I strongly recommend its "lower-level" dictionary - Longman Essential Activator to intermediate or upper intermediate students. In building our strong vocabulary we all know that, for some words we only need to know its meaning but for some essential words, we must use actively and more importantly, make them our OWN words. All the words in the Longman Essential Activator are the crucial bricks which helps us build our strong wall of English vocabulary. In addition, this dictionary also has many word banks i.e. bank of basic words for popular topics. If you are an intermediate learner, buy this one, and believe me, you won't regret!

I believe this kind of dictionary has a bright future and it paves the way for other dictionaries of the same type in the future.

The Longman Language Activator is a new kind of dictionary - it is a dictionary that enables language students to selectively encode what they want to state in English to a degree of linguistic accuracy that had hitherto been impossible using conventional dictionaries. Basically speaking, the Longman Language Activator is a dictionary of ideas. These ideas are the1052 key words that have been distilled from a spoken corpus of 10 million words and a written corpus of 30 million words. From these key words, the student is presented with options to help guide her in homing in on the most semantically relevant word for a particular context or situation. All the options are common, and are shown in order of frequency. The great strength of this dictionary is that it gives clear guidance on how words are normally used, and in which context they are appropriate, whether it be spoken or written, formal or informal, child or adult, or American or British. I particularly liked the dozen or so illustrations that demonstrate how proper use of the dictionary can train the learner to select words and phrases that a native-speaker would use, and perhaps I would have liked to see more of them. The Longman Language Activator is an excellent reference guide for teachers, and simply a must have for any advanced learner hoping to turn passive knowledge into active use.

I bought this book based on the reviews and I made a mistake.
This book doesn't give the technical details I wanted.
If you are one of those bosses who doesn't get into details and just want to know the jargon so you can look technical when you are in meetings with more incompetent people, this is your book.

If one can't manage to complete a book in a week, then it is not a book. It is a reference that you occasionally use. XML, Web Services, and the Data Revolution by Frank P. Coyle definitely comes under my 'book' category. If one wants to learn what XML and Web Services are in a week, this is a book to read.

Lot of information yet concise presentation accomplished with self explanatory pictures depicting various XML technologies.

There are about 230 pages of actual content that provide a high-level tour of what the author calls the "data revolution." There is a crisp and concise overview of the XML technology family, along with some examples of XML in use. There is broad yet concise description of SOAP and Web Services. Common implementations like .Net, J2EE and other vendor implementations are discussed along with some of the issues in the industry. XML Security is discussed in enough detail to give you a good grasp of the issues. The book wraps up with some ideas about where this technology could take us.

The best thing about this book is that it shows how XML and Web Services overcome many of the problems that plagued RPCs, DCOM, CORBA and RMI in a way understandable by anyone.

This book is a quick read, in the concise, bulleted, margin-annotated style of Object-oriented Technology: A Manager's Guide. There are lots of really excellent visuals. This book will not help you actually write code or implement Web Services -- it is good for a semi-technical reader, or a technical reader who wants a better grasp of the big picture. Highly recommended.

I must be romping through my third childhood because I still love this classic equine tale about the founder of a truly
American breed of horse. I enjoyed it now just as much as when I was young; Henry's story holds up with successive readings
since the human emotions are sincere, and the dramatic events are true. The young protagonist, Joel, has a passion for horses; as a young man he dreams of finding his beloved, Lil Bub, the first Morgan colt whom no one wanted.

Even more, this is a story of Vermont--famous for its Green Mountains and courageous patriots--during the War of 1812. Later on in the story we witness a brief but triumphant presidential visit, where the Morgan horse was publically recognized.

Plenty of dialogue, short chapters and excellent b/w sketches by Wesley Dennis combine to give us a delightful gallop into the Yankee past. No one knows for certain who sired the "little" colt, whom only a poor boy could admire, but tales of his racing speed and pulling strength quickly made him a local legend, with farmers eager to get stud rights. Like BLACK BEAUTY this book is written for kids and horse lovers of all ages. PS: Because they are so strong and fast, Morgans are used in the National Park Service.

The story line is very lovely, a book about the strong bond between a boy and the sire of a truely noble breed of horses: the Morgan. It is based on a true story. Readers should be warned that some of the characters are made out to be very steriotypical Vermont poor folk *limited vocabulary and wearing scraps of leather for shorts, ect. ect. ect.* and may be offended by such. I myself have heard several complaints on this. However, the overall effect does present a believable story. Worth looking into.

This book was pretty good,but could be compared to King of the Wind and Born to Trot.This book was a good book,but not the best of Marguerite Henry's books.King on the Wind and Born to Trot are much more exciting to read.All in all,I liked the book,but found it boring in some parts.I am still a faithful M.H. reader.

There is one genuinely exciting story in this book: the third prize winner, "Whatever You Do, Don't Read This story". Most of the other stories were either dull re-hashes of episodes (or briefly mentioned but unscreened incidents) from alternative view-points, or short and embarrassingly melodramatic vignettes. There were occasional points of interest: "Gift of the Mourners" contained an alien culture that was left without being rescued and enlightened by the Universal All American values of the USS Voyager. "Out of the Box, Thinking" was a plot-based story, which, after the gluey sentiment of several preceding stories, had a welcome vigour. "One of Forty-Seven" was an exciting display of imagery, but, as with many of the stories, petered out. Of course, this may be a flaw inherent to the rules of the competition, in which no major changes may be made to the Star Trek status quo. I know the talent is out there. I read fan fic. So why is this collection so unimpressive? Then again, the choice of the asinine "If I Lose Thee..." as the first prize winner makes me less than trusting of the editors' judgement. Of the two stars, one is for "Whatever You Do, Don't Read This Story".

This is the third installment of the on going series that the fans of TREK submit stories for publication. Strange New Worlds III is a good look into the talent of some of the fans and what their preception of the STAR TREK universe to be.

This volume contains 20 short stories and one is written in Klingon. The stories vary as to genre and are well written. As with other short stories, these help fill in some of the gaps to the story lines in films and televison series. And I must say that some are very inventive to say the least.

All in all, this collection of short stories is well worth your time in reading, as they are engaging, entertaining, and insightful. The fans know what they like to read and some talented fans know what to write. It is heart-warming to see new talent continue the dream of Gene Roddenberry. As long as there is fan involvement the dream will continue to grow and flurish.

Read this anthology and see the future writers of TREK evolve as they direct the course of TREK to new paths and fill in the gaps along the way. What an interesting future evolving on these pages, not only the storylines, but the grow to the authors themselves.

They say you should never judge a book by its cover and, boy is that the truth with this book. I had bought this book so I could learn the rules of the writing contest but for six months I never bothered to read it. It looked, on the outside, very campy and silly. I didn't want to admit to anyone that I would read such a book. Recently, however, I was home alone and bored. I had nothing new to read, so I took a look.

This book was great! A lot of credit must be given the editors who went through, they say, 10,000 submissions to come up with this book, the best of the lot. Star Trek III, Strange New Worlds, is broken into four parts to reflect the four different shows. From Star Trek to Voyager, we are treated to stories featuring all of our favorite characters.

I was most surprised by how consistently good the stories were. While there were one or two flops, most of the tales here are very interesting. About half of them were insights into stories we have already seen. So, for example, in the movie "First Contact" Lt. Hawk died after becoming a Borg. What really happened to him? Now we know. The other stories were totally originally.

My favorite stories were found in the Generations and Deep Space Nine Section. I especially liked the return of Mr. Barclay and Mr. Moriarty. My only real complaint, a small one, was my strong disagreement with the stories awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes. The second place winner was great. The other two were not as good or original as many of the great finds in this book. Still, since most of the stories were so good, I can see how the editors could have made this mistake. "Strange New Worlds," misnamed since it is really about returning old familiar ones, is a fun read.