I am an engineering professor and a professional CSWP user. I read the reviews on this book. I purchased the book based on the reviews. I would not recommend this book for advance users or intermediate users. The author spends too much time on the basics and information that is covered through the SolidWorks Training Manuals. This book would make a good training manual if you do not already have the SolidWorks Manuals, I DO! It does not make a good reference manual.

Paul,

Your book, Teach Yourself Solidworks", is FANTASTIC. What a
Great Book!! It is absolutely the best Reference Book currently
out there and it is filled with a tremendous amount of easy to
follow information. It is definitely the most "Complete-Guide-
To-Solidworks"! Your book covers everything from the Basic
Fundamentals to the Most Advanced Operations.

It is also very user friendly, allowing the beginning user as
well as those who are Advanced users, to follow along with ease.
Basic modeling, Bottom-up and Top-Down Assemblies, Surfaces,
Design Table, Sheet Metal, Mold Techniques, and Detail Drawings.
Everything is covered. The Questions for Review Section, at the
end of each chapter, is also a vital tool for learning.

Thank you for creating such a useful tool for all Solidworks
Users and I look forward to your future creations.

Sincerely,

David K. Rikimaru
(The Aerospace Corporation - El Segundo, California)

As a CSWP Professional user, I can strongly recommend this book. The first major reason is for the settings information in the first 2 chapters. This type of invaluable information cannot be found in the SolidWorks Standard Training Manuals. Secondly, as an ex-Autocad user I was able to easily convert my existing Autocad Files efficiently into SolidWorks Using the Chapter on 2D - 3D Conversion. I had previous knowledge of this function, but this book made the topic crystal clear. I think this book is an excellent training guide as well as an invaluable reference for feature creation topics.

In general, this is a good biography and reference source on Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. The bibliography of suggested readings by and about Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. is the most comprehensive one I've found. My only criticism is that whole sections of this book appear to consist of re-workings of two earlier books on Roosevelt -- Edward Renehan's The Lion's Pride and Mrs. Roosevelt's memoir, The Day Before Yesterday. Those who have already read the two earlier books may feel somewhat let down by the lack of new information. Otherwise, this is book is enjoyable and uplifting. The many anecdotes of Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.'s courage, common sense and humanity (not to mention his complete lack of self-absorption) are encouraging and make this book worthwhile.

I enjoyed the book regarding TR Jr.'s time as governor of Puerto
Rico and the Phillipines and World War I & II because I didn't know much about his life during these periods (except what Ed Renehan and Sylvia Morris wrote in their books). What I did not like about Jeffers' book are a few errors he put in, which could have been avoided by better research: For example, he wrote a few times (like on page 28) that TR (the president)said that he feels "as fit as a bull moose" in 1898! As far as I know this expression was coined only in 1912 when a mad man tried to kill TR in Milwaukee. He also writes twice that "The Roosevelt family of Sagamore Hill" was written by Mr. Harbaugh (pages 16 and 30). We know that Hermann Hagedorn wrote this great book!
It is amazing how many qualities of TR we can find in his oldest son! Jeffers book is a good read, but from my point of view not the great narrative as we know it from Edmund Morris or David McCullough!

I have waited a while for a biography of TR, Jr. I have read "The Lion's Pride" (highly recommend this as well). Although the first few chapters of the book talks more of TR than his son, it is an overall very interesting read. I find it amazing how much TR, Jr. followed in the footsteps of his father.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about an amazing man who led an extrordinary life.

I think it's overrated. I think it features a lot of scurrying about and spy-caper antics to cover up what is a very simple situation.

The early part of the book--narrated by Alan Turing (as conceived by Paul Leonard) is the best part. Turing's fascination with the amnesiac Doctor, starting with their wonderful meeting by a piece of sculpture the Doctor wishes could talk, fuels the book for me. But then, as we have a switch in narrator (Graham Greene picks up the thread of the adventure, and then further passes the reins to Joseph Heller) I started to switch off. Not only is each narrator less interesting than the last, but the story continually backtracks, presenting scenes over again from different perspective. Did I need to read this book in one sitting to really understand it?--I'm not sure, but for most of the book, it seemed as if all the key players--Turing, Greene, Heller, and the Doctor--were running around enacting cloak-and-dagger schemes, and bluffs, and double-bluffs, and chess-moves with pawns sacrificed--with nobody involved even sure what side they were on. The characters, in their behaviour, appeared to me to be automata, somehow playing spy games simply because they liked the Doctor, though many times they did try and get him to explain himself.

The plot concerns a strange coded message picked up from Dresden near the end of World War 2; it seems to be some kind of barely-decipherable call for help, but who from?: Jewish refugees? German dissidents? POWs? It's all very murky, considering how many characters run around worrying about it, and ultimately end up playing murder games over it. More and more the highly irregular code, initially examined by the Doctor and Turing, looks to be un-Earthly--hence the Doctor's enthusiasm. His lack of memory at this point in the series, coupled with some sense that he is not a normal human, has him searching for beings that may provide answers, and the Dresden code is a promising lead. Unfortunately, I just felt the story ended up being a whole lot of nothing--not as impenetrable as that other exhausting, "highly literary" Who effort, The Adventuress Of Henrietta Street (which bored my socks off), but not as great as I had been led to expect. True, the contrast in personality between Turing, Greene, and Heller--their various philosophies, reactions to the Doctor, heated conversations about humanity, evil, love and emotion, war, etc. etc. etc.--are somewhat stimulating, but for me, these were lively characters caught up in confusion. And when I'm feeling confused about a plot that, when you start junking all the cloak-and-dagger fooferah and endless backtracking, would take a paragraph to sum up, it means I'm not enjoying the book.

THE TURING TEST is one story told by three authors. Mathematician Alan Turing begins the tale, novelist Graham Greene continues it to the best of his abilities, and finally CATCH-22 author Joseph Heller completes the story. Long time readers of the Doctor Who line will no doubt be quaking in fright throughout the final sections - not because of the writing or fear of a manic Yossarian, but from prior exposure to Paul Leonard's books where the endings are often short, hurried or just plain missing in action. Fortunately, this is a book that holds together extremely well throughout its entire 242 page run.

This is an extremely well crafted story. Since this is essentially one story told from three separate viewpoints, there is a certain (albeit small) amount of overlapping. At many times in later sections, I would be eagerly flipping back to earlier portions to revisit an event that had previously been described. Every time I did, I would be rewarded by the new insight or the different perspective (or just the wonderful bickering between the narrators). It's constructed very well and is quite clever once you realize some of the stuff that Leonard is subtly slipping into the story. The attention to detail is quite good and certainly very impressive.

As in CASUALTIES OF WAR, we get a slightly different view of the Doctor depending on which narrator is in control of the story's pen. Each one sees the man differently based on their own prejudices and background. This arc is being handled rather well, and the ending of this particular book is powerful in terms of the individual story being told, and also in the larger context. I'm fairly surprised with how effective it ended up being.

As with the previous two books, the story doesn't end with everything totally spelled out for the reader. But I think this works to much better effect here in THE TURING TEST than in either of those two tales. Here, we have exactly enough framework constructed in order to form one's own conclusions without going into too much detail. As this is a completely character based story, the specifics are entirely irrelevant to the narrative. The book ends exactly where it should, with the Doctor confused and ultimately alone, frustrated at the very last.

All in all, this is a very impressive piece of writing. Each of the three narrators have interesting voices that serve the story well. While the book drags a bit during parts of the middle Greene section, the rest more than makes up for them. Highly recommended, as this is something that the books should be doing more of.

"Turing Test" needs to go up there with "Interference" as "Doctor Who" books that break the mold and then stamp up and down on the pieces. Narrated, in turn, by fictionalized versions of Alan Turing, Graham Greene and Joseph Heller, this is an outside-looking-in "Who" book that's much more about character than outwitting the latest generic alien threat. Don't expect to be given all the puzzle pieces as to What's Going On, because that's not the point.

The tone shifts wonderfully throughout the book to reflect the styles of the narrators in question - the Heller section in particular brings back "Catch-22" vividly. The Doctor is terribly interesting, here, with his motivation stripped down to very human essentials. This book has probably made the best use of its setting of any of the books about the eighth Doctor exiled on Earth.

Buy it. Read it. Thank yourself later.

The authors seems to know what he is talking about and
the code looks good. However the downloadable code for
this book does not carry the code to call any of the scripts
in his book.
A separate script is needed and
needs to be written by the reader to call each script and
basically test if his vb.net scripts are execute and run successfully.

This approach forces hands-on approach but seeing how large
the .net framework is, my money would have been better spent
on another book.

With the effort required by this book, it could end up to be
a waste of time if his code doesn't work in the end.

This must be one of the worst books I have purchased ...

This is a good book for covering the actual language of vb.net (classes, delegates etc). There isn't much content on creating win or web forms or ado.net for that matter. You will need a separate book if you want to learn these techniques.

Reading flow of this book is very smooth. covers topics like threading in a very nice way. A difinite recommendation for anyone who want to learn VB.NET completely

After reading this book it was clear that koans are not a useful practice for pursuing the truth. The author lists numerous koans, and then gives some ludricrous explanations in the form of pretend wisdom based on his view of the doctrine of Buddhism. Daily life will give a Zen student all the koans needed to pursue ultimate truth. Studying koans only helps fill a student's head with more fake "knowledge".
Zen is the ultimate psychology of self knowledge, and it's misleading to think that koan study helps achieve anything.

It's clear that the last reviewer has never actually practiced with koans, which is all this book asks of you -- to practice. Perhaps "the author [seems to give] ludicrous explanations" because, as the author writes, One action is better than 10,000 sutras. In other words, this isn't a book to read in the same way that you'd read the newspaper, & you either agree or disagree with the author (like maybe reading about a jockey and deciding you hate riding horses -- when you've never even seen a horse). Plus here, essentially, there is no author. To put it another way: YOU'RE the author.

The reason I give the book five stars is also why I think the last reviewer is a bit off: Zen is NOT "the ultimate psychology of self knowledge" or anything else fitting so neatly into what we'd like it to be. Let go of "Zen," then what is this? Just this! What can you do?

Bring me the sound of the cicada, asks one of the koans. Seung Sahn might say, Put it all down, put down "psychology" and "self knowledge" and "Zen is supposed to be this," and bring me the sound of the cicada.

(And to clarify: I've never been a student of Seung Sahn's. Unfortunately.)

There are three classic collections of kong-ans (the Korean word; Japanese is koans, Chinese is kung-ans) from ancient China: the Mumonkan, the Blue Cliff record, and (less known) the Book of Serenity. They follow the same basic form: the kong-an (the word means public case, and it's generally a very short story, e.g.: "A monk asked Joju, does a dog have Buddha nature? Joju answered Mu.") is presented, followed by commentary. In the Mumonkan and the Blue Cliff record the commentary is by the book's compiler; in the Book of Serenity you get a grab bag of comments by various teachers. This book is a contemporary representation of that tradition, presenting a large number of classic kong-ans from the Korean tradition, as well as kong-ans based on poems or fragments of poems (e.g., there's a series of kong-ans from the Tao Te Ching) and derived from other traditions (including the Christian tradition). Each kong-an is followed by a question or series of questions, and then by a short commentary. (Historical note: Today we tend to identify the kong-an with the question, but traditionally it's the basic situation that's the kong-an.)

Winslow AZ, who wrote the extremely negative review, is right on one point --- these stories, questions, and commentaries can seem incomprehensible if you read them the way you'd read, say, a review on Amazon.com. Well, hey, I'm a mathematician and mathematics papers are incomprehensible if you read them that way too. So, no, this isn't a book for people wanting an introduction to Zen Buddhism, whether philosophical or practical, and it isn't an analytical text for students working toward their PhD's either.

What it is is the real thing, a contemporary snapshot of a living tradition, and that's its value. People practicing in the very particular tradition of the Kwan Um School of Zen refer to this book regularly, just as the Mumonkan and Blue Cliff Record (most or all of whose cases are incorporated here, but with different commentary) have been referred to regularly for over 1,000 years. Kong-ans resonate with some people and not with others; for those for whom they resonate they are invaluable. If you want a taste of the living tradition, whether as a practitioner or a scholar, check this book out.

The title of this book, more than anything else, misses the mark here. "A History of America's First Wilderness" suggests a comprehensive history of key forces that shaped Adirondack geography and culture, and this book doesn't attempt to be that. Paul Schneider is a journalist, not an historian, and this difference in perspective is reflected in his writing. His book consists of a series of anecdotal essays, snapshots in time, with little thematic development, analysis, or reference across chapters. It's enjoyable reading and will give some insight into historical forces that have formed the ongoing battle in the Adirondacks over development, but better regional histories, such as Diana Muir's "Reflections in Bullough's Pond; Economy and Ecosystem in New England" probe deeper than "The Adirondacks" even tries.

Schneider knows his Adirondacks in a superficial way, and after reading his book, so will you. If the topic intrests you, pick up a copy of CONTESTED TERRAIN by Philip Terrie. Contested Terain is as sound as The Adirondacks is shallow. Style, of course is a matter of taste. Many people appear to enjoy Schneider's carefully studied casual prose.

Paul Schneider's The Adirondacks: A History of America's First Wilderness is both good history and great story-telling. Taking the region that is now the Adirondack Park from the first arrival of whites through the present, Schneider skillfully weaves together both present and past. For example, his chapter "The Prince of Otter China" tells about fur trapping today, and introduces the reader to several living "characters." Neighboring chapters then recount the history of trapping in the Park. Other groupings of chapters do likewise for lumbering, wilderness guiding, and mining. One "chapter" of the Adirondacks which he unfortunately slights are Dr. Trudeau and the tuberculosis "cure cottages" in and around Saranac Lake. This small quibble aside, I recommend this book to readers -- both New Yorkers /Adirondackers and general readers -- who want to learn more both about a specific, fascinating place and time and the idea of the American "wilderness" in general.

This is an excellent and relevant book. It is well structured, and the examples are very much practice oriented. However, when I tried to install the included software under Windows 98 and Windows 2000 Prof I failed. Only under Windows 95 it runs!
Did I something wrong or it is just like that!
I would appreciate any helpful comment!

Starts off with some basic principles before going in to more developed mathematical and stochastic models and even includes topics include in the use of constraint equations and blunder detection. Explanations are supported by clear & practical problems. Excellent book for surveyors and photogrammetrist.

This is the most clear, well-written surveying text I've ever read. I recommend it both for students and --especially-- practising surveyors, who should have no problem going through it even after an exhausting day's work as, technical as it is, it is presented in a way by no means overwhelming. By the end of the book you'll have a firm understanding of, and be comfortably applying, statistical principles and least-squares methods in your job. It's an investment worth every penny.

Giving it 1 star cause that's the least. Would have gone lower otherwise.Complete waste of time. The book gives you nothing about COM+ not even close. The author repeats the content in every chapter and keeps reminding about the upcoming content, which doesn't come. He does not cover the behavior of COM+ objects under transactions makes you a complete loser in the COM+ market even after reading the book from cover to cover. I'd say go buy the COM+ from Ted Pattison.

I laboured through the first 350 pages of this book before giving up on it.

The authour is pre-occupied with the structure of his book, to the point of distraction.

The constant 'sign-posting' of promissed up and comming content completely masks any actual content.

There is constant disapointment that the promise of useful information to come, does not materialise.

Never have I read so many pages and gained so little understanding of a subject.

Lately, I have read a number of books (Mainly from Wrox Press) and have been getting used to obtaining core information delivered with clarity. This book has come as something of a shock.

If there is a saving grace, it is that the book contains numerous pointers to web sites which may ultimately prove to be more useful than this lamentable effort.

Bible? ...

I have already worked with COM+ quite a bit, so this book was a little less useful than it might have been when I first started working with COM+. I wish that I had this book when I first began because I would have spent a lot less time reading bits of information from arcane resources and more time programming. The various tips and Web resources are still extremely useful for the intermediate COM+ programmer. I found all of the examples worked, sort of matched real world programs I've created, and helped me overcome some problems I'm still having with my COM+ applications. I think the most useful piece of information for me was all of the testing and debugging tips. If you're looking for an end all resource for experts, this book will probably disappoint. On the other hand, if you're looking for a good all around reference written in understandable language, then this is the book for you.

This book has very little information in it. It has taken about 25 pages of useful information and combined it with some basic NT admin knowledge, some fairly useless tests and test cases and repeated itself a lot (I think I've found 5 explanations of the page file which are the same) and stretched it all out into a book. Also, it doesn't explain some things very well.

The book was well focused on Microsoft Performance Monitor (ie, how to configure PerfMon) and provided some good insight on how to read and determine problems with specific counters. Some trouble-shooting techniques were provided, however very weak in substance. The majority of this book was really focused on PerfMon and reading and understanding the counters, bottom line. The spelling was unusually high in errors, and a spelling checker would have done this book good. I am surprised it actually got published like this! At any rate, I still feel I got my money's worth and I feel more confident using PerfMon and understanding counter values and what sort of error you may be experiencing if you exceed the threshold of some of these values.

Very readable, lots of practical advice, and a truly fantastic number of typos. What ever happened to proofreading?

I found this book and the rest of the series reasonably entertaining when I first read them at eleven years old, but still not as good as Junior Jedi Knights (my favorite books at the time). Now that I have recently read this book and the whole series again, I realize that they are really not very good at all, and I am generally pretty leniant with books of all kinds! This book in particular was one of the worst. The plot is silly and unbelievable, and the characters and writing are plain awfull. Kids twelve and under probably won't notice or care, but older fans will most likely find them boring and stupid. Also these books do not fit into the timeline at all, so it won't make any sense if you try to read them with other stuff.

When the father of Jabba the Hutt, Zorba, returns to Tatioone (he was in prison) he learns that Jabba was murdered and he wants revenge on the murderer, Princess Leia Organa! There Zorba also learns of an imperiel bounty on Ken. In Jabba's old palace he finds Jabba's will. One of the things in the will are some hotels on the Cloud City. So he decides to travel to The Cloud City. As that happens Luke & Ken (the Jedi Prince) are going to Han's new opening of his Cloud House. They bring him a house-cleaning droid. Trioculus has a training base near there. Zorba comes and wins the rulership of the Cloud City from Lando in a rigged card game. Han's new house-cleaning droid falls from his house (which is suspended in mid-air). Though Luke and Leia rescue the droid they are captured by empiriels. They take Leia to Trioculus who wants her to be his bride, though she resists and Trioculus locks her in his room. Then Han leaves to see what has happend to Luke & Leia. So Ken is looking in the cockpit of Han's cloud racecar when it accidentally starts and flies off with him in it. He is arrested for being to young to fly. But Zorba learns thet he is the Jedi Prince that is wanted by the empire. He summons Trioculus and offers him Ken for Leia. Trioculus refuses saying that he wants him for his queen. Zorba is furious because he wants to kill her. And that is how the feud begins. It is very good and exiting. I think it is good for all ages.

Ok. I have all the Jedi Search novels and the courtship of princess leia and the thrawn tales and the corellian trilogy. But for some reason, people bad mouth these books cause they aren't in chronolgical progression with the above books. Man, they're for ten and twelve year olds! When i was eight or nine, and just getting into star wars, these were the only books i read. Get all six books, they're like 4 bucks apiece. if you are a true fan, you'll love them.