The author of this book has obviously spend a great deal of time in academia -- much to his detriment. The book reads like a college-level psychology textbook, complete with references to the myriad of other people upon whom his work is drawn.

For example, the author is not content to just define a term and move on. Instead, he reviews the entire history of the term, what other people have thought about the term, and then summarizes all of the thoughts. Geez, there are even examples at the end of each chapter.

If my review is hard to read, I blame it on the fact that I have been reading this book for the past hour.

But, if you can get past the overly-academic writing style, you will find a good deal of useful information. The concept of object-oriented user interfaces is often misinterpreted and/or mis-implemented. There is a detailed history of the object-oriented GUI, and good discussions on the human factors that lead to good GUI designs.

One note is that the book was published in 1995, so brace yourself for lots of examples from the leading GUI of that time: Windows 3.1! Windows NT is only mentioned as 'Cairo'. But as is true of all design models, the age of the book really has no relevance.

Collins cuts right to the quick on this often misunderstood topic. Project manager thru programmer will profit from having this on their desk. It you remember COBOL, FORTRAN and PL/1, then this sbook is syour key to understanding the "new age" of object orientness. Incredibly concise, crystal clear discussions of all the important issues.

This excellent book is one of a mere few books that thoroughly and competently addresses object-oriented (OO) style of graphical user interface (GUI) design. Note that OO GUI *style* is entirely independent of whether the GUI is implemented with OO technology. A strength of this book is its comprehensibility by programmers, in addition to GUI designers.

Here are two other essential ones: Design Guide for Multiplatform Graphical User Interfaces (LP R13, Issue 3, by McFarland & Dayton, 1995, Piscataway, NJ: Bellcore), and Object-Oriented Interface Design: IBM Common User Access guidelines (by IBM, Carmel, IN: Que Corp.)

Here's a merely fair quality but essential one: The Windows guidelines for software design. (by Microsoft, 1995, Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press).

Wesley J. Smith has written a book about an admittedly emotional and divisive issue. The book fails because he lacks any form of objectivity, his writing lacks any sort of balance, and at times becomes so trite, reading becomes painful. "Forced Exit", fails at the very beginning when the author shares a personal experience of having lost a friend who chose to take her own life. The experience was clearly a galvanizing event for him, and it undercuts his ability to present a case that is worth reading.

I would guess that many readers who get past the first handful of pages will truly have a hard time once the author resorts to the ultimate reference, that when used infects what it touches with evil. The body of this book is 252 pages in length. When the author lists 31 pages of his book, or 12.3%, or nearly one in 8 pages under the heading of, Germany, Nazi-euthanasia practices in, the book rightfully becomes of questionable value in the least, and of near zero value in reality. If this man cannot discuss a topic that has held a prominent place in this nation's debates for the better part of 2 decades without calling on the old standby of the Nazis, his argument is exposed as the weak one that it is. Associate your argument with the Nazis and you may win some to your side, but most will run from hyperbolic comparisons, that by their use tend to trivialize who the Nazis were, and what they actually did.

Mr. Smith expresses his astonishment at the manner that traditionally held, "self evident truths", are being undermined. Perhaps Mr. Smith should read the document to which he refers. When the final draft of that famous instrument was written it contained hypocrisy that was practiced and legitimized by courts to the late 19th century. These, "wonderful", self evident truths are wonderful in theory, and are practiced when convenient, or when humanity finds a spot in government, or a seat on the highest court. Most of the signatories to the document he refers to were signed by hypocrites who advocated the most bestial of social norms, while holding the highest offices in this nation, inclusive of several presidencies.

For a moment let us imagine we are dealing with consenting adults. Society requires more standardized knowledge for the operation of an automobile, together with a license, than is required for procreation. The law allows one of the two participating people the option of terminating the results of their coupling. One person makes the decision for at least two, or if you prefer three other lives. Again, operating a car is deemed to require more contemplation.

Mr. Smith is against a person making the decision their life is one they no longer choose to live. He is against this because he sees and parades all the weaknesses of human nature. He is naïve, alarmist, in short a utopian. Humans have problems, not because they are human, but because some humans will always choose to corrupt any mechanism, any law, any opportunity for themselves at another's expense. I don't think it should be called human nature, but some subset of defective human nature. There are Doctors and there was a Dr. Mengele. Because of the latter we do not rid ourselves of the former.
Physician assisted death is not new, what it is, is not spoken of. We would have fewer doctors if it was. Patients also leave hospitals to go home to die; they do not go there empty-handed, without options.

Mr. Smith will remain agitated and lack objectivity for as long as he finds fault with the species of which he is a member. The species has flaws, but is not fundamentally and completely, flawed. I will take an imperfect system regarding euthanasia just as I accept dozens of other practices that affect my life, before I will ever agree with those like Dr. Smith who would have the 400+ members of congress tell me when I have had enough. The activities of our elected officials give me pause on far more occasions than the minority of citizens whose votes put them there.

No major change comes quickly. Little compromises are made that slowly but surely lead to a major, sometimes horrifying change. Such is the case with euthanasia.

Smith is a very readable writer and well informed on the issue. Yes there is some emotional content but that is not a bad thing. This is an emotionally charged issue. It is also a disturbing issue for many and far to many have fallen for the ready platitudes of the so called 'Death with Dignity' crowd. When the lies and sweet words are stripped from their word though a very harsh and frightening reality is left.

As one who has had to fight this beast (we lost the battle and our loved one, the war goes on) I can tell you he is spot on to the problem with this book and his other writing on the topic. He has recommendations as to the direction of the solution but the action to reach it lies with you and I.

I'm in are you?

I am currently investigating several different ethical/public policy issues: homosexuality (i.e. advocating the behavior in schools, marriage), abortion, and euthanasia.

The author of this book is the lead lawyer of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, an organization that opposes all forms of euthanasia and assisted suicide.

One of the changes that has made this discussion meaningful is the discussion between humane care and medical treatment. Humane care would include food, heat, washing etc; the basics, if you will. Medical treatment would be drugs, surgery and so on. In some recent US Supreme Court case, certain types of humane treatment has been reclassified as medical treatment (e.g. water and food). The significance of the change is this; patients cannot refuse humane treatment but they can refuse medical treatments, at a certain point (or have others refuse medical treatments on their behalf).

There are sections that document the development of euthanasia in the United States through court cases and attempted legislation (in the 1930's and the present).

There are sections on the Holland called, "Dutch Treat," is particularly good. Holland is the only country that where euthanasia is widely available (Holland made it totally legal on November 28, 2000). Smith shows the progression in Holland, how the guidelines are routinely violated and so on. One of the scary problems is INvoluntary euthanasia: 1,040 people (an average of 3 per day) died from involuntary euthanasia, meaning that doctors actively killed these patients without the patients' knowledge or consent.

Smith shows that the euthanasia agenda would endanger the disabled, the ill, the elderly, those with low education, minorities etc... In Holland, there is universal health care for all paid for through taxes, in the United States it is partially private and partially public.

Smith shows the two philosophies that at conflict in the current debate. The anti-euthanasia proponents hold to the equality-of-human-life ethics: "that each of us be considered of each inherent moral worth, and it makes the preservation and protection of human life society's first priority." (page xxi) This is contrasted with the quality-of-human-life ethic, which gives human beings value (protection etc...) not because they are human but only if they possess certain qualities. I think that Smith wisely chooses to examine Peter Singer as the principal philosopher of the movement; one of the interesting things was the reaction of critics to the book. In America and Britain, the book was warmly welcomed and highly praised. However, in Germany, "... Singer has... been severely criticized and demonstrated against in Germany, a country with an acute memory of the horrors can result from adopting such values as his." (page 23).

The book also exposes the myth that all persons who oppose euthanasia are religious fanatics, from atheist Nat Hentoff, "I can't base my opposition to euthanasia on religion. I am an atheist!" (page 202). Also, "As Rita Marker, director of the International Anti-Euthanasia Task Force, notes, 'Legislation that prohibits sales clerks from stealing company profits also coincides with religious beliefs, but it would be absurd with the separation of church and state.'" (page 201)

One last note, one of the main reasons that euthanasia is encouraged is that the suffering is too great etc. Smith shows that most doctors are very poorly trained in pain treatment and that hospice care is rarely promoted. Smith shows that almost all pain can be treated even advanced bone cancer etc...

The book was excellent and I appreciate the detailed examples, history and court cases that Smith writes about.

I borrowed a copy of this book to read during my business trip. It is a pretty well written book with in depth coverage of object design. You won't learn how to write codes here (the book kind of assume you know). But it certainly gives you all the essence of object programming. With it you can probably design better Java codes, or even C# codes in the future :) The architecture chapter is quite enjoyable too. I have recommended the book to my developers (also got a copy myself for reference).

I've read quite a number of books on OOAD. This book is unique in that it not only covers the fundementals of objects, but also many contemporary and advanced topics.

I especially like the OODB chapter, which talks about mapping from objects to tables -- a topic that I rarely come across in other books. The discussion on patterns involving interfaces are very nice too. In the architecture area, the infusion of MVC pattern into web application design is inspiring.

In summary, this book is useful for programmers at all level. But mid to advanced level designers will find it particular interesting.

This book covers the basic concepts of object classes, associations, etc. in a very understandable manner. The author writes in a very nice style and the material is easily digested.

The large number of UML diagrams really helps a lot. I am also pleased that the author follows standard styles in UML.

The book also covers needed chapters with intermediate and advanced topics, which is seldomly found in other OO books. The tips, rules, and suggestions will benifit the developers who need to model the system and write the code.

The bottom line -- I enjoy reading this book very much and would highly recommend it to others.

Cheng's logical development of electromagnetics is indeed novel, but the only real way to appreciate it is to first have had a decently rigorous course on electromagnetism or have read another electromagnetics book. The reason why I say this is because at the onset of the book, Cheng puts forth his electromagnetic model, but there is absolutely almost no motivation for this model. It seems completely arbitrary, although it does yield familiar results. No basis for the model based on experiment is provided; therefore, I suggest that one first read a book that takes one through the historical path of development -- leading from experiment to generalization. Also, I have found a major error in the theory of the book. In Chapter 6 when Cheng is talking about potential functions, he correctly derives a formula for the curl of a potential function. Now, the basis of the book is that one can develop electromagnetics in an orderly fashion by specifying both the divergence and the curl of a vector. So, in order to fully develop the potential vector field, he says "we are still at liberty to choose the divergence of A." He then states a formula known as the Lorentz condition for potentials and motivates it simply because it simplifies another equation. However, this is logically incorrect. Just because one knows the curl of a vector field does not mean one is at liberty to state its divergence. Again, Cheng is completely arbitrary here and provides no basis for why he does this other than the fact that it simplifies an equation. Many other books correctly deal with this matter -- even on the introductory level. What really happens is that the Lorentz condition is a result of the relation between electromagnetics and the theory of relativity; when electromagnetic theory and relativity are combined, the Lorentz condition follows logically. Sadiku's Elements of Electromagnetics correctly states this, as do other texts. The reason why this is so important is that this is the crucial link between showing that electromagnetic fields that vary through time are represented as waves! This violates the nature of the book -- that it should be logically consistent, orderly, and non-abrubt in its reasoning. Finally, I would like to say that Cheng's book Field and Wave Electromagnetics has the same downfall. However, I believe every serious student, engineer, and even scientist should read through Cheng's Field and Wave Electromagnetics because it is more rigorous. What Cheng has done is really interesting, but I simply cannot recommend this for any first time student. And, do not buy this book; buy his Field and Wave Electromagnetics because it is superior. Last and final note: the development of transformers is much inferior to most books (including his own Field and Wave Eletromagnetics). Check out my review on his other text.

I liked this book because of it's elegance and the fact that there are hardly any errors. But, I thought it expected the student to make too many assumptions in order to do the problems. This is frustrating for a first course (or any course) in electromagnetics when you're just gettting used to using vector calculus and are new to Maxwell's equations.

Another problem I had is the lack of down-to-earth descriptions. To derive a formula and add one sentence at the end does not convey what is physically going on.

I thought "Fundamentals of Applied Electromagnetics" by Fawwz T. Ulaby was much more accessible for a first course in electromagnetics.

Being myself a undergraduate of electronic engineerings, I see this book as one of the most complete books that has ever got into my hands. Concise, full of examples, leaves you with thirst of going deeper into the topic.

At first the book seems nothing more than a compilation of Murphey's various hunting escapades. But a closer review shows chapters laced with tidbits and tips taken from personal experiences. --Bill Monroe (The Oregonian)

I greatly enjoyed reading BLACKTAIL DEER HUNTING ADVENTURES. Your work really counterbalances a lot of the anti-hunting and anti-trapping sentiment which is so strong especially here in California.

I've read BLACKTAIL DEER HUNTING ADVENTURES with a great deal of interest and enjoyment. It's fun to read while at the same time containing a lot of solid "how to" information. The book depicts a young enthusiastic outdoorsman who made a lot of mistakes in his early years. It shows the same young man maturing into a responsible, successful hunter with a deep respect and love for the wildlife resource. He has written this book in a manner which will help the young reader to avoid the mistakes which he made and give older hunters cause to reflect on how they conduct themselves while in the woods. As a bow hunter who grew up hunting Whitetail deer, I know Murphey's methods for hunting Blacktails can also be applied successfully to Whitetails. Murphey's final chapter on the future of hunting could well be the most important message he delivers. Hunting rights are no longer something that sportsmen can take for granted. They are under attack from all directions, and unless hunters realize the danger and are willing to become involved in the political and legislative process, our children and grandchildren will never experience the thrill of opening morning, or of having a four point bust out of his bed and into their sights.-- Rod Harder (Executive Director Oregon Sportsmen's Defense Fund)

This book occurred a couple of years into the series so the characters were still being fleshed out so the focus was more on finding new missions to write about. While everything was traced back to Cardassian involvement showing the same narrow focus that the first few seasons did. Also the books needed to get broader in scope and characterization. This book was a slow start and the only part that was true to the series was the Quark and Odo conflict.

Star Trek: Deep Space 9 The Long Night written by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch is and advenure-mystery book as Commander Benjamin Sisko and his crew try to reign in Quarks greed.

Yes, Quark the large eared Ferengi has found out about a large sum of priceless works of art from a ruler, who centuries long ago, took with him to exile from the planet Jibet after a democartic uprising. Doctor Bashir has an ardous task of keeping Supreme Ruler of Jibet alive, who has been preserved in cryogenic suspension for all of these years. Jake and Nog uncover a Cardassian plot of treachery only to involve Deep Space Nine crew.

There is unrest on the planet Jibet and it threatens the well being of Deep Space Nine as Jibet launches an armada. There is action-adventure and your reading will move quickly as the action mounts to a fever pitch and Deep Space Nine is about to be destroyed. I can't devulge the ending but you will be thoroughly be entertained through out the book as old favorites as Dax, Jake, Nog, O'Brien, Bashir, and Odo all come toghther for an action-packed adventure.

One of this finest Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch team's novels ever published.

I'm glad this book is not sold anymore! When my mother-in-law (a NZer) read it and then came with us to visit Kiev, Lviv, Moscow and some small and mid-sized cities and towns, she said she read your book, but LUCKILY didn't find it to be true!!!

I think the author of the book needs to visit Ukraine and Russia soonish and re-write the book, or get some treatment for..., racism, cold war and a shield from what the media brings to your TV screens (everyone knows that only bad news and breakthroughs make news), so please use your brains!

I read the book after my mother-in-law's remarks and was sick in my stomach, for quite a while.

I lived in Russia for a year and traveled extensively in European Russia and Siberia and this book never failed me. Although prices fluctuated, everything else was absolutely accurate and very thoroughly researched. The writers went to enormous lengths to write what is hands-down the best travel guide to Russia. The new edition is due out this April. Mine is already on order.

I found this book fascinating. It was great the way the writer bought into consideration the fact that no-one wants to travel to the places in question. When reading this book be sure to enquire at your local travel agent for any misconseptions. great book. 5 star

"The Grass is Singing" is at once a simple story and a complex psychological and social analysis. It is a commentary on race relations in imperial Rhodesia, and an exploration of the timeless dichotomy of culture and nature.

The book is perhaps most interesting when the author describes the ideology of white colonists in Africa. In particular, the idea that extreme racism develops out of a need to justify economic exploitation is poignantly posed. It is not that whites oppress blacks because they hate them, rather they hate them because they have to oppress them and deny their human worth to maintain their standard of living. Thus, newcomers from Britain must be taught how to deal with and feel about the natives, and poor whites are despised because they seem to blur the color lines.

The main characters of this book are the Turners, Dick and Mary. Dick is an unsuccessful farmer, who lacks the mindset and risk-taking behavior of a commercial farmer-entrepreneur. Always in debt, always facing bad harvests, he still manages to live on because he finds fulfillment in his work and feels attached to the farm. Mary, on the other hand, is fundamentally unhappy with life. She was used to life in the city, working as a secretary, visiting clubs and movie theaters. She marries Dick simply because she realizes her friends think she should marry, and her meeting with the harsh realities of the countryside devastate her. Mary hates the sun, the natives, the bush; in short, everything associated with nature as opposed to culture. In the end, her unhappiness overcomes her to the point of full-fledged psychosis.

This book contains many insights, and Lessing describes the natural and social settings very vividly. Her detached exposition of the values of white farmers is very effectful (in this respect, I was reminded of Turgenev's quiet depiction of the misery of the Russian peasantry as a 'sideshow' in his stories). On the whole, however, I would have to say that the book failed to live up to my expectations, which had been raised by the captivating first chapter. We dwell inside Mary Turner's head for 200 pages, and unfortunately she is a spoiled and rather boring woman who fails to engender much sympathy.

Though she is a renowned author, Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook, generally thought to be her best work, I found garbled and depressing.

'The Grass is Singing' was written when she was much younger and more stable, but it is still depressing, dealing as it does with the appalling treatment of the blacks by the whites in Africa. The prejudice and cruelty Lessing evokes ring true,as does the characterization of Mary. Personally, I found it impossible to empathise or even sympathise with her, and wasn't exactly upset at her fate. It is Moses one feels sorry for.

Lessing is able to be at once detached and involved in the lives of her protaganists and is only judgemental by implication. The collapse of Dick and Mary's relationship is well delineated and inexorable. Her descriptive powers are impressive - Africa comes through very strongly and one can almost smell the dust and the rain and the blossom. A good read.

When a colonial woman with a not unconventional upbringing who is not the luckiest person, decides to go for broke and marries as she is getting on, what could happen?

The anatomy of the master servant bond is one of the main themes of this book. Before welfare systems, all cultures had master servant relationships as the rich employed servants. The master servant relationship was stark in colonial Africa. The masters had to know the natives so that they could get work out of them and a certain amount of loyalty but the masters in Africa also had to keep the natives down, almost like animals, so that they could remain the masters and the servants could remain servants.

The natives of course as servants, could also benefit as underdogs as all servants do, being loyal, friendly and pleasing but not above their masters. Mary in the book, starts with preconceptions about her relationship to the Africans, and as things get from bad to worse, she if faced with a mistress servant relationship going horribly wrong.

Her husband is a fool, tied to the land and unable to organise his ambitions or get anything out of his farm. She knows better, but luck is never on their side. One actually has a respect for Mary and her penetrative intelligence, but the book describes how this very human intelligence with its stiff attitudes (she marries when she understands people are sniggering about her behind her back, in any case, women at the time did not have much choice in this), breaks down, collapses utterly.

Harrowing, hot hot weather with the dry beauty of Africa described by a veteran. This is a book that unravels in your hand and is a literary masterpiece for a first novel.

Lessing describes herself as a colonist and is known to be unconventional and vaguely feminist. She displays a keen erudition of the issues, language and sights of her once native Africa - and brings it home.

This book is written in installments: first-person narratives by people who know the main character. Most of them are only a few pages long, and few of the narrators repeat. Thus, it's impossible to really sympathize with any of them. The main character himself, gunslinger John Wesley Hardin, is hard to like: we never get into his head, and from the outside he looks like just another gangster. The reader sympathizes briefly when he's wounded and imprisoned, only to be put off when he commits his next act of mindless violence or drunken stupidity. The post-Civil War American West, as presented by the author, whacks the reader over the head with violence, lawlessness, and what I felt were rather gratuitous scenes of sex with prostitutes. I'm all for "gritty" historical fiction, but here it sometimes seemed like the author was just trying to show off. Without emotional content, grit is just an irritant. Having said all that, the book is intelligently written and apparently well researched, and it might be somebody else's cup of tea more than it is mine.

There was nothing like the American West in the history of the world and figures like Hardin exemplify it; deadly, brave, sad and foolish all at once. His death seemed a relief because by 1895 there was no place left for the bravado of a gunslinger who would draw over an insult.

I found the writing format, the telling through other's eyes, less engaging and certainly less tasty than Blake's current style.

This was some book ! Absolutely outstanding in every respect - as a story, in its style, very exciting, excellent dialect, really funny in spots, ..... Chapter by chapter I went from hating the arrogant ... (John Wesley Hardin), to wanting to be a Hardin. If he really was as portrayed in this book (which I doubt), he was mostly the kind of person I respect - leave him alone and he'll buy you drinks all night long and otherwise give you the shirt off his back. Meddle in his business, get in his face, or harm his family and he'll whip you or kill you. Now don't get me wrong. Any reader would try to see where they fit in, in that day and time and I am pretty much left with the sad conclusion that I would have probably been a sorry, boot-licking peddler of some kind . . . . not a Hardin.

Long after I've forgotten mysteries based on ornate plots, I still remember the ones based on interesting characters -- and this one by Valerie Wilson Wesley is a pip! In addition to Tamara Haynes' hard-working private investigator, we have a wealthy and philandering street boy made good (Lincoln Storey) and a whole fascinating crew of people who stood to gain from his death under suspicious circumstances: his smooth but untrustworthy wife Daphne; her daughter Alexa from another marriage; Alexa's friend Tasha (who is arrested for murdering him); the restaurateur Tate -- an old family friend of Tamara's; aspiring politician and attorney Stella Pharr; and Brandon Pike, who is squiring Daphne and Alexa around a couple of years after having broken up with Tamara.

Incidentally, the murder weapon is -- peanut butter. Someone laced Storey's bean dip; and Storey was notorious for his allergy to peanuts.

So kick off your shoes, relax, and let Tamara show you what happened.

This is the first mystery that I've read by Valerie Wilson Wesley. I really enjoyed the story very much. The novel seem to pick up toward the end. I was at the edge of my seat trying to figure out the mysteries. I look forward to reading more from this author. Be Blessed.

DEVIL'S GONNA GET HIM is the 2nd book in the Tamara Hayle series that has confirmed it's place in my favorite detective series (first is Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlings). She is still as smart and capable as she was in her first book, WHEN DEATH COMES STEALING. A obnoxious society patron who pays a visit to Ms. Hayle's office to check on his daughter's new boyfriend starts the ball rolling, and the patron's murder kicks it into high gear. I have all of the mysteries, and, if lucky, will have any future novels involving the new Christy Love of the millenium.