Yes, evolution is important. Yes, biological evolution is slow. So much is true.

However, hey-wow hippie fantasy that freefalls until it links to the latest jargon is not helpful - this book is simply this, sadly.

For a proper analysis of culture and its evolution [yes, evolution, it doesn't have to be biological] and hence a correction to the mistakes seen in this book, see 'The Meme Machine' by Susan Blackmore.

Paul Shepard was a brilliant ecologist and an amazing original thinker. His final book is one of the most important contributions to the Earth Crisis discussion. It combines the best ideas from "The Tender Carnivore," "The Others," and "Nature and Madness." It leaves out his clunky ideas, and it's fairly easy to read. This book is a condensed version of the cream of Shepard's life work -- his masterpiece. Shepard died shortly after finishing it, so his wife did the editing cycle. Consequently, this is the most readable of his books.

In a nutshell, he sees that we are genetically wild animals from the Pleistocene. Our genes expect us to be living a leisured life in the wilderness, in small bands, eating wild foods. We are not designed to thrive in cities, eating [bad] foods, in overcrowded conditions. Living in the modern world destroys our bodies, minds, and spirits.

Shepard takes us on a fascinating voyage through human history, with extended discussions of plant and animal domestication, and the horror that these grave mistakes brought to humankind. He recommends beginning the voyage back to a Pleistocene way of life. Shepard has done his homework, and this book is filled with provocative and head-spinning ideas. If you want to know WHY we got to where we are today, this book is a treasure chest.

Shepard's work has been seminal to mine as a bioacoustician. I am only sorry I came to realize the importance of his efforts so late in the game. In particular, the ideas expressed in Coming Home...shed a very bright light on our otherwise muddled thinking about our ancient human roots and our current ecological struggles. At the same time, I can well understand why other readers might feel challenged. His ideas are sometimes difficult to grasp and expressed in ways that might otherwise be presented more clearly. However, if one has the patience and the perseverence, the walk is well worth the effort. I like to be made to reconsider my strongly held convictions. Shepard's work has never failed to add great value to my life in that regard.

I can't say anything about the book since I haven't gotten/read it. But I can tell you that trying to order the "eBook" version online from LLH is an insanely complicated and frustrating venture. Don't waste your time and risk your sanity!

This book goes straight in to code, no connections or words about interface. Although he has lots of projects and lots of code, including a disk, unless you know how to use cable connections from board to PC or PC to whatever you are trying to control (he has a motor project) then you will be wasting your time with it. If you are adventurous or know how to connect, then the book is generally pretty good. Has 40 projects which vary quite a bit and the circuit schematics for some projects also. But definitely not for a beginner.

I haven't read more than the first chapter (online sample), but it looks interesting. The ... has the pdf version available for about [$$$] if you are interested. I couldn't find it at ... either! 5 stars, but I only saw the online first chapter too. Looks like it would be a good book for anyone planning to interface their PC printer port to electronics.

Paul Postma explains marketing strategies based on new technology. His strongest material emphasizes using information age technology to learn about consumers' behavior. New technologies, he explains, must be adapted to actual human behavior, because technology has changed quickly, but the human mind has not. Postma cites successful applications of these techniques, mostly from the Netherlands. A few concerns about the book: There are many good insights, but they sometimes get lost in the academic writing and extraneous detail. The basic marketing discussion is very basic. And, rapid change has already slightly dated some material though the book is only two years old. We [...] recommend this book to marketing managers and company owners who use the newest technology, and to academics teaching college classes on marketing methods.

Refreshing new insights, in particular for business people who had some doubts on the hype stories. The first marketing book that presents complete new insights for the marketing process that help you to increase profits in a most effective way. Not to spend more money. Great!

The New Marketing Era is oozing with unargueable connections between basic human nature, new technology and how they are connected in what is a new world of marketing. Many people seem to have missed the human connection in the drive towards integrating new technologies such as the internet, commercial on-line services, email and multimedia CD-Roms.

Paul Postma helps us to keep our feet on the ground and, at the same time, get to grips with the new technology that surrounds us in this very down to earth book - by far the most practical book I have read this year.

This book is intended for very novice programmers, and, at least in the first seven chapters I have managed to slog through, covers Visual Basic and only passingly covers how to program for Access. The presentation is poor, both due to the awkward and affected style (e.g. "Conditional code is the traffic cop of computer programs. Individual lines of code solve singular problems.") and completely indecipherable statements such as "A collection is a user-defined datatype. The users who defined the collection are the programmers who wrote Access." Parts of the book are very basic, such as the sections describing the parts of the computer -- the RAM, hard disk, bus, etc, and also has problems, such as "The electircal wire along which information travels is referred to as a bus. The microprocessor's address and data bus store the information of where data resides in memory." Confusing and inaccurate.

There are more blatant errors, such as the code example where the circumference of the circle is defined as pi*radius^2; this is actually the area. Also, a digression on an "aha" moment using Archimedes is wrong on the law of bouyancy, on Archimedes being "the father of geometry" and on Grady Booch originating the "aha" concept.

I don't recommend the book either for a begining programmer -- there are many other books that are better written and more accurate or for someone, like myself, looking for a text to teach how to program specifically using Access VBA. However, if any of you are insistent are getting the book, I'll be happy to sell you my copy.

Still haven't got some of the examples to work even though I have gone blind picking thru the code to see why. This book taught me some things but I think it jumps ahead at teams leaving gaps.

I've been trying to learn programming now for about 7 years. Actually I started trying to learn exactly 20 years ago. I just never could figure it out. Now that I've worked through the first 10 chapters of this great book, I'm doing all sorts of things, I wrote an access basic double line word wrap module, as well as a module that interprets musical signs for input into MUP (a really great program...). I also wrote code to calculate totals for expenses in different categories and currencies as well as mileage calculation, which was impossible to do with the normal report tools. I've also written code for inputting a ms-directory listing (print to file) and outputting a file path and filename, which can then be imported and made into functional links. I've also written code to generate numbers (to print labels of consecutive numbers) and I wrote the code faster than I could have done it for example with excel. I highly recommend this book for anybody who wants to do programming and just can't seem to figure it out. Of course if you do have a knack for programming, you'll learn all sorts of neat tricks, I found this book very inspiring. And even then, I only have Access97, and was still able to adapt it (since it is written for Access2000) and the adapting was very little problem. I'm sure his new book for Access2002 will be just as good!

Coo

The book itself isn't bad - it's VERY concise, so real beginners won't use it very useful. The CD, on the other hand, is worth purchasing, as all the examples are much more widely discussed as in the book.

The book (and the CD), of course, has mistakes. I've covered them in my review on the book (I don't want to repeat myself here so check out that session here on amazon.com).

And the most important question: is this package worth its price when Core Java 3rd edition only costs you 64 bucks? Complicated question... Core Java 3rd edition is meant for 'Experienced Programmers', but I think even a beginner can understand most chapters, they're so damn well written. In comparison, Deitels' book is far too concise and does NOT cover most advanced features of the language - even the part on the I/O covers the OLD I/O library. If you take into account that Core Java discusses virtually EVERYTHING worth mentioning, this Deitel-book doesn't seem to be THAT good any more.

For reviewers that complained about the low sound quality - it's really bad, but still understandable, I've never had any comprehension problem (n.b. my native language isn't English).

To summarize, go for Core Java instead. It's much more comprehensive, covers much more advanced features of the language and is much cheaper. If you can't learn the basics of the language from that book, buy this one, too - and the CD as well (without the CD, this book is practically useless to beginners).

this book presents java in a clear and precise manner. i have been searching for a good introductory book on java but instead found a bunch of books that were unorganized hodge podge of info. this book covers a great deal of material and can also be used as a reference book.

The contents of this book is basically the same as 'Sun Certified Solaris 9.0 System and Network Administrator' (All-in-One) from the same author. Buy only 1 of either.

I'm not sure what books the other reviewer has been looking at, but there are a lot of differences between the certification book and the reference book. There is some overlap between the two because some of the topics are the same for the exam and for everyday use. But the reference book contains lots of reference infos but the certification book contains exams, reviews, test questions etc. I have both books and I use them differently. Keep up the great work Dr. Watters!

I would say that this book is really good if you had your hands dirty with Solaris 8. Gives you detailed knowledge about Solaris Administration. Have fun ! Cheers
Manish Gaur

QUE must have pushed this book into print. As other reviewers have noted, one has to have dogged determination and stamina to digest this book. It presents a confusing, unrelated and diverse array of "my pet way do it" by several authors. The examples on the CD are pathetic - all lumped into one directory, no readme file(s), incomplete and therefore not runnable as-is. Example: to extract the files related to Ch 9 required sifting through the entire chapter, and then register.htm and its CGI backend were conspicuously missing. However, after bludgeoning my way through most of the book, I have extracted a small number of gems that are actually useful in real-life projects. The CD contains this whole book plus two others in HTML format. A nice idea, but each one is disorganized by a totally different team of people. There is no unified 'look-n-feel' and navigation is painful in all three books. Good as a reference, shop for it 2nd hand (and pay only what it is worth).

When I bought this book, I had absolutely no serious programming background. I was pretty accomplished in HTML, but nothing advanced. At first, the book was a bit hard. But the technique that I found helpful is to re-read each section (or each topic). I haven't even looked on the CD yet, and I'm learning loads about Perl. Also, reading this book really helps one understand some more advanced Perl tutorials on the web. It doesn't get 5 stars though, because the reader has to really be committed. This isn't a light read: get in the thinking mood when you read it.

I've read at least 6 books on perl, but if you want to specifically learn perl for websites, then this book is very good. It talks about databases (DBMs and SQL). Managing sessions and validating users, and it also talks about creating a shopping cart system. There is a chapter on CGI sercurity. Although the book was written in 1996 its a very good step in the right direction of making good, reliable CGI applications. In fact, compared to other CGI books printed in 96, this book is years ahead of them.

This book takes 2 real-life historical figures: Princess Victoria Ka'iulani Cleghorn of Hawai'i and author Robert Louis Stevenson and turns their very brief and innocent friendship (she was 13 years old)into a mumbo-jumbo of New Age romance and Science Fiction time-travel. There is no historical accuracy in this completely fictionalized account of a "romance" between these 2 real-life people. You are MUCH better off reading any of the well known biographies of them than this book. This book shows complete disrespect towards both Princess Ka'iulani and Mr. Stevenson's memory.

I am a part-Hawaiian woman who grew up in Hawai'i. The history of the Hawaiian people has been a cruel and sad testament to humanity. Princess Ka'iulani's life was one such tragedy. Hollywood and the media have distorted and exploited the Hawaiian people and the lands of Hawai'i for years. This book adds insult to injury, and is written with the utmost irreverence to the true beauty of our beloved Ka'iu. If you truly love and respect Princess Ka'iulani and Hawai'i, you will seek out the truth, not the Hawaiian-hype you have been force-fed. Respect the native people and their native lands.

It is sad to see this fanciful novel about half-Kanaka Maoli/half-Scottish Princess Ka'iulani perceived as "history" by the general public. As a member of the Hawaiian Historical Society, The Friends of 'Iolani Palace, Bishop Museum and other Hawaiian organizations,I can say there is utterly no basis for the notion that Robert Louis Stevenson and Crown Princess Ka'iulani had anything other than the briefest and most innocent of friendships. The Princess was a CHILD when Stevenson knew her, and they NEVER had contact - not even letters - again. Because this book - which people should remember is a NOVEL - makes use of Hawai'i State Archives photos as illustrations, some people make the mistake of thinking there is a basis for this notion of an "erotic" relationship between RLS and Ke Ali'i Ka'iulani; it is frightening to think this idea may be people's introduction to Ka'iulani's life...an impression that will damage understanding of Kanaka Maoli history. As for Stevenson - most scholars paint a uniform picture of him as constitutionally attracted to older women.

While cleverly written, the upshot of this fanciful "romance" is that it reinforces old unfounded gossip about a "pregnancy", and ignores many known facts about Ka'iulani's life, including the central fact that her health was broken by the trauma her country's take-over by the U.S. caused her. It manipulates the reader into serious misunderstanding, and submerges the life of a real heroine beneath fantasy. That the author constantly refers to her as "Victoria" (which her friends and family did not)seems like a denial of her Kanaka Maoli self in favor of her "white" self...a very troubling detail.

Robert Louis Stevenson and Ka'iulani were NOT "lovers"! The Princess was not the sexually precocious "south seas" stereotype the author presents, but a schoolgirl barely in her teens, and an Ali'i of great mana and dignity besides.

The recent Mutual Publishing paperback reprint of the classic Ka'iulani biography "Kaiulani, Crown Princess of Hawaii" by Nancy and Jean Francis Webb is a must-read for those interested in the REAL Princess, and the new young adult bio by Sharon Linnea is also a good intro to her life and times. Also not to be missed is Kristin Zambucka's excellent update of Hawai'i" (Green Glass Pub.). These tell the real story and don't confuse the unfamiliar with fantasies manufactured out of whole cloth.

If Amazon. com cares about "equal time" and free speech, and multicultural issues in general it will print this. Four glowing "reviews" ought to have some counter balance

This book has important information, but I do not think it is worth the money. The letters are published in other places and Mr. Wertheim does not make useful cojmments to help understand the content.

This is the definitive edition of Crane's correspondence and almost doubles the number of known Crane letters since the Stallman and Gilkes edition appeared in 1960. The sectional introductions constitute a short Stephen Crane biography. The footnores are concise and informative.

Like all important university press books, this definitive edition of Crane's correspondence is expensive, but it almost doubles the number of known Crane letters since the 1960 edition edited by Stallman and Gilkes. The introductions to the various sections constitute a short and authoritative Crane biography. The footnotes are economical and to the point.

I can only say one good thing about this book: it steered me towards a couple of really worthwhile books. I began to read Bamberg/Sternberg about five years ago, when I was looking for a book that could explain the mathematics that physicists use. It was heavy going from the first chapter, although I am not a neophyte in mathematics. I found it slow, obscure, devoid of true proofs and explanations when I needed them most. As another reader said, the books is perfunctory while it seems it wants to aim high. I finally gave up, after the tremendously confusing chapter 5 on scalar products. But I followed a couple of their bibliographic suggestions. In particular, I read the very enjoyable and rewarding Loomis and Sternberg, "Advanced Calculus," a classic textbook, not an easy one, but one that rewards hard work. Loomis/Sternberg is a comprehensive, solid, insightful book that covers a lot of the material of Bamberg/Sternberg's first volume. I took up Bamberg/Stenberg this week again, after a hiatus of several years, having digested several books on linear algebra, topology, and functional analysis, and I still find it very difficult to read Chapter 1. The reason: nothing is fully explained or proven. Rather, the book reads like a collection of hints that barely connect and in places is painfully slow. My advice: don't try to read it unless you are forced to. For a neat, useful, modern introduction to mathematical physics, try Hassani. Or go back to that jewel, Loomis/Sternberg, if you can find it.

In short, I find this kind of a book very rare indeed.

If you are doing physics and electronics at the undergraduate level, this book will open your eyes to a whole new unified approach to several on-the-surface different topics. I wonder why many course designer's haven't looked at this book and realized how accessible it has made some of the relatively modern concepts. The authors laudably attend on each concept with a passion to make the reader confident of grasping at least a few different ways of looking at it, keeping the core well in view all the time. It is also to their credit to have kept the beauty in the ideas intact with a good balance of abstraction and concrete instances.

In particular, the authors treatment of exterior calculus is an eye opener if you are new to the topic. For a student only exposed to traditional methods, it is a revealer to see the laws of linear electrical circuits as well as Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism being expressed in precisely the same language. It is totally to the credit of the authors to have presented the concepts in such a simple to understand progression. For example, they make you see clearly why you have understood the divergence theorem or Stokes theorem of conventional vector calculus if you've grasped the essence of the calculus of functions of a single variable. Its a fantastic voyage folks, and you've got some of the best guides methinks.

All those who find physics and mathematics a drag at college should grab this book and be enlightened. I wish they fix some of the errors in the book in future editions, but the errors don't at all hinder the learning.

Ten thumbs up!

I don't understand why some of the reviews here are mediocre. Although I haven't read the book to any depth, I have a knack of knowing whether a book exudes quaity by browsing briefly through it to get a general feel; the breadth of the material presented is breathtaking and at least eye-opening. Here are some reviews from the back cover...
American Journal Of Physics:- Not only is the mathematics clean, elegant, and modern blah, blah, blah... This is first rate!
Times Higher Education Supplement:-
...There is to my knowledge no comparable book, and it is hard to imagine a more inspiring one.
Remember also that there are two volumes.