This book is serious - seriously bad! Even its title is misleading: a professional photographer does not want or need a book that includes half a page explaining what a camera shutter is - nor do most amateurs. The authors impress with their wit, but not with their ability to present information well or accurately: terms (such as "raster"), are used, but not defined until later in the book; a subject can be repeated a page or so after it is first covered; and subjects are dealt with in a superficial manner. Worst of all, the book contains serious inaccuracies eg. a CD-R has a capacity of 65MB (yes, 65), and a 15" CRT monitor weighs 40lb / 88kgs. Unless you want to spend hours checking every piece of information given, steer well clear!

Professional Digital Photography was well organized and contained alot of information but seemed to be more an elaborate glossary for beginning photographers with too much space dedicated to past equipment overviews and not enough hands-on information concerning digital photography, scanning and output. The editorial style had a bias that was distracting:example,"...a microlab can process 8-10 rolls of film an hour and be operated by a highschool student with a nose ring."

Overall, this may be a good book for the beginning AHDL designer. However, if you would like to learn about VHDL, find another resource. Several of the examples in VHDL (Chapters 9 through 13) do not compile. In fact, some of the examples are completely missing from the web site.

The overall look and feel is cheap. The diagrams appear to have been drawn using an inexpensive drawing program, with the "snap to grid" option turned on. My cousin in the second grade could have done a better job.

The use of mixed case in the code examples is confusing and inconsistant. Some variable naming standard should be adopted.

The AHDL portion of this isn't hopeless but it's impossible to even start to learn VHDL from this book - it never makes sense. Notice how cheap the re-sells of this book are? Ding!

This biography was short on detail and long on Mr. Sanello's supercilious and trite commentary. Mr. Stewart truly did live a wonderful life; let's hope that someday someone writes a worthy biography.

This book was the pits!! Sanello was in such a rush to cash in on Mr. Stewart's death, that he did not even bother to proof-read the text. The story jumps from year to year, story to story in no reasonable order. His unsubstantiated views and opinions were intermingled between news clippings, and "reported" conversations. And to top it off, the same misguided passages are repeated throughout! My only regret: that I finished the book. But, unfortuantely, there were no books left on the shelf, and I am too big a fan of James Stewart. Next time I will know to stay away from an "instant book." Mr. Stewart would be rolling in his grave if he knew of this trash bearing his name.

I read the book quickly and felt it was also written quickly (especially near the end). I enjoyed learning more about the wonderous Mr. Jimmy Stewart, but was disappointed in the essence of this book. I'm sure I have aided in more wealth for the author, but perhaps by writing about Mr. Stewart he has learned about the core of a true gentleman. The typos were numerous...bad writing and bad editing. But, I did receive tremendous pleasure in reading the remarks by Judy Stewart Harcourt. Her father must be proud.

The blurb on the cover of THE RAT PACK says "They had fun" but there's precious little fun to be found here. This book is a tedious listing of (mostly negative) events. It lacks any sparkle and vigor, and if I believed half of it, I'd have to wonder just what the appeal of this group of overgrown adolescents could be. There had to be more.

The Chairman of The Board is the centerpiece as an egomaniacal bully who uses his star power to make the world feel indebted to him. His reported temper tantrums seem utterly absurd. Anyone who used his fists or threats of mob violence as much as the authors claim Sinatra did, should have and would have been locked up, "different era" or no. The Frank Sinatra in these pages wouldn't be a "King of Cool". He wouldn't be anything much.

The rest of the boys orbit around Frank like some kind of an inebriated solar system. The boozing and skirt-chasing is leaden, so where's the thrill? Where are the laughs? If this book is at all accurate (and it isn't, listing Dean Martin's date of death incorrectly), it means that this group of supremely talented entertainers valued nothing, not even themselves.

The bulk of the book is made up of mostly scathing summaries of the Rat Pack movies. Nary a word is said about either Frank or Dean's musical careers. Sammy Davis Jr. is dismissed as little more than the Rat Pack houseboy. Peter Lawford is depicted as a sexually confused drug addict craving the attention of the others. Joey Bishop is virtually forgotten. The Rat Pack Mascots (Shirley MacLaine and Angie Dickinson) get barely honorable mentions (MacLaine far more than Dickinson). One has to wonder why Shirley MacLaine would continue to associate with The Rat Pack after being assaulted by mobster Sam Giancana twice in their company. The book begs an answer. MacLaine is no slouch, so obviously more and better was happening with the "Clan" than this sordid book deigns to tell us. (...)

This book is a waste of money. It is a collection of movie reviews starring Rat Packers strung together and pretending to be a book. Only the very most die hard movie fans should consider checking this out of the library but save your money.

Here is the deal. If you are just starting to get into the Rat Pack or any of the players individually. Then this book is a good start. I would call it the Cliff notes of the individuals and their movies. If you have seen all the movies including the Matt Helm movies or if you have already read books on Dean, Frank, Sammy's biography then you are way ahead of this book and pass it by.

But if you have not seen the movies and want to learn the basics of each man and then from there search into each one of them seperatly then this is a good starter. There are some great books on all the guys but you will finded Sammy's Biography to be the most fun. Remember to check out deanmartinfancenter.com for more info on the Rat Pack. For the guys who wrote this you could have given us some fun facts or answered some questions, instead they read everyone else book and put together their own version.

This book is a shamelessly flattering puff piece for the Kai Krauss line of MetaCreations products. The products are good, but this book provided little assistance on how to use them. The enclosed CD-ROM has all kinds of goodies for the Mac, virtually none for the PC (other than a few video interviews). There's a lot of pretty color images, but little help for anybody trying to duplicate them. It's a shame it's marketed as the official book because it comes off as nothing more than an extended commercial advertising Kai's product line.

This book is so useless! It shows you all the cool things you can do with these programs, but it doesn't teach you how. No wonder they called it "Studio Secrets." How they made these graphics were kept a secret.

I agree with all the reviewers on this site! Although full of glossy, full-colour illustrations, this book is little more than an advertisement for various products and the programmers who developed them. It tells you nothing about how to do things with the software, it merely flaunts the capabilities of the programs and shows off examples of images created by experts, without any guidance. There are plenty secrets in this book, unfortunately none of them are revealed so you can produce your own images. Having paid the full UK price for this book (twice as much as the US price), I think I should have bought a coffee-table book instead, as it's all pretty pictures and not practical info or tutorials

it sucke

I usually don't write negative reviews but I want to save people from buying this book. If Amazon.com had 0 stars I would have picked that. Giving it 1 star seems too much.

I was interesed in reading more about Ms. Stone due to an incredible interview I saw her give on cable (I believe it was Inside The Actors Studio on Bravo). She literally had the audience spell-bound. She was articulate, compassionate and a class-act. Nothing like she is portrayed in this book. It is poorly written, poorly edited and the authors name-dropping is so pathetic you almost feel sorry for him.

Save your money. Maybe Ms. Stone will write an auto-biography.

Does as much justice to Sharon Stone as "Sliver" did for her career. Only good for begining readers, fans of tabloid trash, or Stone fans who love dissing Demi Moore or Madonna. Wait for the TV movie.

With much interest in studying Disney, I appreciate the author's different opinion towards the Disney company. But as a book itself, the author seems to have put up a lot of irrelevant stuff into it, such as where did the word "boycott" in English come from, and what does the Bible say about the act of boycotting, which all seems unrelated to the Disney's issue. The author should have gone deeper into the issue, such as to provide more evidence and analysis to support his argument. But the author has not done that. As a whole, I will instead recommend you only to read the first chapter of the book!

The potential contribution of this little volume cannot be overestimated: Imagine the joy of visiting a Disney theme park unspoiled by the repugnant bigotry that drives Land and York's calls for boycotting Disney. If they are successful in convincing fellow bigots to avoid Disney, then the rest of us will surely have added reason to take our children to "The Happiest Place on Earth." Thanks, Dick and Frank!

If you are looking for a book to helping you get the most from your experiences with the Disney company like I was, this book is not for you. The book was written by members of the religious right and is all about boycotting Disney. Don't waste your time with it.

Warning: In general, these are not the arrangements you hear on Sinatra records, at least the ones from the Capitol era. Usually they are not even close - different keys, less instrumentation, etc. For that reason, I found it to be an almost worthless compilation. Why not provide the arrangements people know and love?

(Im sorry or I dont speak english, Im from Czech republic

Time and time again authors attempt to lead readers to health and hapiness through proselytization. Though thoughtfully worded at times one must realize that hapiness depends upon one's self and one's self image rather than from external sources.

This is a review of the audio tape edition, not the book. The audio tape is not an abridgement of the book. The audio tape is a collection of radio appearances by the authors. If you read the box, you'd see that. But the description on-line does not make that clear. I think giving the radio show transcripts the same title as the book is deceptive. The presentation is rambling because they just respond to caller questions. They emphasize the relation between depression and a chemical called ceratonen (seratonen?). This tape is not worth getting.

Reader beware - This novel uses the names of real people, but places them in situations that never existed, doing things they never could have done, often with people they never knew. Do not expect to learn anything about the historical characters portrayed. This is fiction.

Also, beware that this novel is not suitable for children, and implies that the characters were of low moral fiber. There is nothing in the historical record to corroborate this implication. Again, it is one author's fiction.

Unfortunately Mr. Nichols has rendered a novel using real characters and thus has given us a confusing, even irritating, book. It would have been far better had he chosen to invent his characters as well as his story, for almost all of what he has written never happened. Sadly, people may read this book and believe what it has to say. This is a book neither for the aviation historian (no distinction is made between real events and invented ones) nor the juvenile reader (the language is certainly not appropriate). Mr. Nichols clearly wanted to pen a novel and he should have done so full-force, instead of sullying the character and memory of pioneer flyer Harriet Quimby. This book no longer has a place on my book shelves.