Well, if you consider what these authors have to say, and if you've read other management books, you'll see it's simply the same thing just another way of saying it! No, I returned my book ... and purchased something with substance. I was indeed very disapointed with the amateurish writing style and research ' haven't you guy's heard of editors?

EFFECTIVELY ADDRESSES THE HOT TOPIC IN MANAGMENT SKILLS TODAY. THE BOOK ILLUSTRATES AND EXAMINES BOTH THE NATURE OF NORMAL HUMAN RESISTANCE TO CHANGE, AND THE DYNAMICS OF THE PROBLEM SOLVING PSYCHOLOGY NECESSSARY TO OVERCOMING THAT RESISTANCE. WRITTEN IN AN EASY, AMUSING, AND INCISIVE STYLE, THE BOOKS ESPOUSES A STEP BY STEP METHODOLOGY THAT IS BOTH USEFULLY COMMPREHENSIBLE AND COMPREHENSIVE. AVOIDING ELABORATE AND PEDANTIC LANGUAGE OR SOLUTIONS, IT MAKES FOR ESSENTIAL BUSINESS READING.

As the forward of the book says, no one like change--except maybe a baby with a wet diaper. This book talks about how to work with people to bring change to an organization. Sounds pretty basic, but as the reader discovers, there are all kinds of problems waiting around the corner.

This book is unusual in that it's not so much about how to chagne your employees as it is about helping them embrace change for good reasons that they already have though may not be fully aware of. (Echos of Deming's belief that workers really do want to produce quality products if they can only be enabled.)

The approach that the authors use may seem a little on the lighthearted side, but it is probably as effective a way as any for getting the points across. It's the kind of book you could safely give associates as a "light read" without making them feel that they are being lectured to.

I have read Kliem and Luden's other book, The Noah Project, and this book, while similar in some ways, is better done. All in all, it's a worthwhile contribution to the HR side of management.

another title aimed at information architects/web designers that doesn't really do the business. it's got some good pictures, but there isn't a great deal of rewarding stuff there.

This book is a must have for any designer's shelf. It offers an intelligent and rational itemization of the ins and outs of website creation. But what is the point of it?

A precise title would have been "Maps of Websites" as it doesn't offer much in terms of step by step instructions on how to do what the authors point out is "good."

So, it comes the closest out of any web-design manual/showcase to a lucid vision of proper web architecture. . .

all of these ideas, however, are thoroughly covered in organizational and planning manuals.

If you're looking for a book that can give you insight on how to structure and organize a web site, or any other screen based application for that matter (wireless, desktop, etc.), keep looking because this is not it.

If you already have a good idea of how you want to organize your website and want to take it to the next level, you need a map that can sequence and structure your ideas in a visual format. Its is one of the best ways to gain insight into the overall user experience, help you optimize your architecture and share it with others (no web skills necessary).

This book is a great tool when it comes to looking at examples that illustrate the best mapping alternative for your particular project. As with all maps, the detailed visual examples are a great way to convey the essence of mapping (yes, it is an art).

I've used the information in this book to build maps that help design efficient sites from scratch and optimize the user experience of highly complex mega-portals.

The only thing missing? A section on software applications that will help you to design maps - I use freehand and illustrator which elevate mapping to art form (great for creating an impact in important pitches). A CD with design clipart would also be a useful resource (symbols, icons, pages, etc.).

Neal Thackery is a sixteen year old high school student that is required to re-do an assignment for his film class before he graduates. His teacher was nice enough to give him an incomplete for his grade instead of a failing grade because his film teacher knows that he can do a better job. Neal has to spend his summer working at a warehouse and also trying to re-do his documentary. Neal is a young boy that has a lot on his mind, especially since his father passed away from a massive heart attack. Neal's mother and long time girlfriend Emily seem to be really supportive, until they find out that Neal--once again--lost another job!! While working for a short time at the warehouse, he meets up with a girl he knew when he was younger. With her help he finds out some interesting things about his father and gets reacquainted with her.

This book has a very creative format...most of it is written as a novel, while other parts are like a script...kind of like the book, Monster by Walter Dean Myers. Honestly, I was expecting more at the end of the book.... I liked it, but wouldn't read it a second time.

This book is a good read for someone that has been real close to a loved one and lost them. The age range for this book would be ages 13-18 and even older....

In My Life, Take Two, Paul Many writes the story of sixteen-year-old Neal Thackery's journey to self- understanding. Neal 's documentary about his deceased father has just bombed; he has mixed memories of his father with his dreams. Now Neal must spend the summer before his senior year revamping his documentary, and to appease his practical mother and girlfriend, working at a construction warehouse, making money for college. Neal struggles at work; he can't seem to hold down a job or accept the future that others seem to have already laid out for him. At work he becomes reacquainted with childhood friend Claire and her mother who help him come to know his father. Neal learns that he has a great deal in common with his father, both artistic and creative, and with this knowledge must now make important decisions concerning his future.
Neal's voice is both witty and sarcastic, though sometimes his observations seem a little far-fetched. That lack of connection, though, may just put the reader with the practical, uncreative people who, in Neal's world, also find him hard to understand. Likewise, those readers may find that the documentary script sections slow the story and prefer Neal's humorous narrative. Overall, middle school and young adult readers will recognize Neal's feelings of inadequacies and understand his need to determine for himself what his future will hold.

Nice job. If you like art, it will mean something to you. If you don't, maybe you'll just scratch your head. I liked how the art/film theme tied together the other issues in the book--death, separation, dealing with childhood so one can move on to adulthood.

Oh woes me! I lost my Penguin dictionary and had to shell out [price] for this sub-par and seriously inferior dictionary. Compared with Penguin...well there in no comparison: This one seriously lacks in idiomatic expressions, slang, synonyms and sentence examples for their words. I need to get another Pengiun dictionary fast!

Why are good Russian materials so hard to find? If you're a Russian guru, make some money and alleviate this problem!!!

This is a big thick heavy volume printed in nice large
font on fine white paper, and it is mostly useless.
I am a native Russian speaker and pretty good in English,
having studied it for good quarter a century. I was looking
for a decent dictionary to look up more difficult words,
and I was specifically looking for one volume two-way
Russian-English dictionary for ease of use.
This dictionary turned out to be a waste of money. It only
has the most primitive words both in Russian and English
sections, no slang (and I am talking standard slang, not
street speak), definitions are poor, very few synonyms.
It may be good for beginners but as a reference dictionary
I would not recommend it to anybody.

As a Russian translator in the U.S. military, I have used this edition as well as earlier ones in my work, and I have to say that this is an improvement upon the others, which were already very good. A question for the reviewer who wrote that the back cover contained spelling mistakes in Russian: Where are they? I know the spelling system of the language quite well, and reading the back cover several times, I could find neither spelling mistakes nor incorrect case endings. As for word choice in Russian, it could be that native speakers would have phrased some things differently (as a non-native speaker, it's hard for me to judge), but the Russian text is certainly grammatically correct and the meaning is clearly conveyed.

The Tiper physics textbook, while excellent for an engineering student, lacks much of the theoretical rigor desireable in a physics curriculum. A great many of the problems at the end of the chapter prove to be remarkably simple, and boil down to hunting through the book for the right constants and the right equation to plug into to find the answer. Actual problem solving skills are not developed for a physicist. The chapters on circuits, while excellent for electrical engineering majors, are almost a waste of time for a physics major. Even though the textbook is very thorough with what it teaches, it does not teach at a very high level nor does it prepare physics majors for more difficult future classes. Having used the Kleppner and Kolenkow Introduction to Mechanics textbook for Intro. to Classical Mechanics, shifting gears to something as trivial in difficulty as the Tippler for Electrostatics just leads to frustration over spending more time finding the right constant than actually solving the problem.

This is a calc-based physics text.

Quick Reference: the material in this volume covers electic fields, electric potential, electrostatics, current (DC and AC) and circuits, magnetic fields, inductors, Maxwell's Equations/EM Waves, properties of light, mirror/lense optics, and interference/diffraction.

Review: the chapter on Maxwell's Equations and Electromagnetic Waves was exceptionally bad. It should have tied Electricity and Magnetism together, but just leaves the reader confused. The rest of the text makes everything more complicated than it actually is; Tipler won't give the concepts of the reader, the reader has to discover them on her own. The examples are not a sufficient level for the problems in the book. This book is NOT FOR SELF-STUDY.

Value of Book and a Better Text: the value of this book is minimal. For the price that is being asked (for just a single-volume paperback) is absurd. In place of Tipler's book, I would refer anyone to "Physics for Scientists and Engineers" by Serway; this book is sufficient for self-study, which is a quality you really need in a physics text. This book offers the material of 3 volumes of Tipler's books (the 3rd volume of Tipler's series is modern physics) at half the price. One of my friends has actually completely turned over to Serway, despite that her assigned text is Tipler (she doesn't even open her Tipler text anymore), and is now doing better in her class.

I am a Physics major who finished my classical physics sequence and Tipler's volume of Classical Physics text is fantastic. Volume 2 focuses on Electricity, Magnetism, and Light. The text is clear, the problems are great. The biggest advantage to this text is its format. It has great pictures and amazing examples. Here is what makes Tipler's text in my mind better than Serway or H&R. There are numberous examples reflecting the problems set on the end of the chapter. many of these examples also are "try it yourself" examples, which has suggestions on one column, and the equations on one. Every example Tipler spells out the concept in words and puts the equation next to it. This builds on problem solving techniques, the hardest part of beginning and learning the introductory physics discipline. Other things worthy of note for TIpler is his subtle references to Modern Physics, indicating more is on the way in terms of the way we understand the universe. Overall, Tipler is fantastic. I highly reccomend his textbooks, He even has a Modern Physics text is the best in its class like his classical physics text. (remember a good book is never a substitute for a good teacher)

This is probably the worst book I've ever read on the topic of selling professional services. Not only is it shallow in its discussion on the client's wants and needs, it provides zero foundation nor proof of success for any of its ridiculous "sales techniques". I would not recommend this book to anyone.

This is the best small book on sales/marketing I have found for the small business person. I'm no sales/marketing pro, so the book gave me "hand rails" to hold onto for my business development work. The book pays for itself several times over.

One big account put me in business. To grow beyond, this book seemed to simply & clearly lay out all of the sales/marketing topics that my mind naturally reached out for. I have implemented actions from the book that are paying off in the here and now.

This book is dated when it comes to AI coverage. Among other things, it talkes briefly about the backpropagation algorithm , invented some 15++ years ago. While this book is about philosophy, it would be nice to have an updated version of this book giving a short overview of how the AI field is borrowing more and more ideas from natural evolution and real neural networks. Backpropagation is a specific (and really usefull ) algorithm, and sparked a new wave of excitement about artificial neural networks in the mid 80s. Still, one problem is that the algorithm, as far as I know, is not biology plausible. More recent criticism agains the algorithm would be really really usefull. A short overview of _recent_ AI progress in language understanding/image understanding among other things, would also improve this book.

Also, the book contains a chapter on neuroscience. I found it pretty hard to follow all the details here, because of the technical term used. But remember,- its not the easiest subject around, and carefull reading through the chapter will help.

The more philosophical part of this book is interesting, but to be honest its not my favorite subject, and I didnt know much about dualism and other philosophical problems before reading this book. Well, as a master degree student in artificial intelligence, I probably should have been more interested in philosophy, and in some areas this book is an eyeopener.

The mind-body problem, as it is called in Western philosophy, still has the attention of philosophers, despite centuries of debate. It will no doubt occupy more of philosophers time in the upcoming decades due to the resurging interest (and advances) in artificial intelligence. But the goal of most research in A.I. is now geared towards computational algorithms that are able to learn and can discover new knowledge or data patterns. The "hard A.I." problem, that of creating conscious machines, is not top priority it seems.

But philosophers will continue with the analysis of the nature of conscious intelligence, and the author is one of these. Interestingly though, and correctly, he asserts that progress in this analysis has been made, and he notes that philosophy has joined hands with psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, ethology, and evolutionary theory in making this progress. And this will no doubt continue as advances in these fields are made, and the 21st century will see the advent of the "industrial philosopher". Once thought to be a purely academic profession, the ethical considerations behind genetic engineering and the legal rights of thinking machines will require the presence of philosophers in the rank and file of engineers, technicians, and managers. And because of this, these philosophers, and their coworkers will themselves have considerable knowledge outside their own field.

Again, the refreshing feature of this book is that the author believes that philosophy has made considerable process on the nature of mind. This was done, he says, by understanding the mind's self-knowledge, by providing a much clearer idea of the nature of the different theories of mind, and by clarifying the sorts of evidence that must be acquired in order to distinguish between these different theories. Empirical evidence, he states, has enabled the making of these distinctions much more rational and scientific. But he is careful to note that the evidence is still ambigious, and much work still needs to be done before the these ideas can be differentiated with more clarity. He discusses in detail the different theories of dualism and materialism. An entire chapter is devoted to discussing substance dualism, property dualism, philosophical behaviorism, reductive materialism, functionalism, and eliminative materialism. The author asks readers to start anew and throw away their convictions while analyzing these conceptions of mind and matter.

For the author, the mind-body problem cannot be solved without considering three problems: 1. Semantical: The meaning of ordinary common-sense terms for mental states. 2. Epistemological: The problem of other minds and the capacity for introspection. 3. Methodological: The proper methodology to use in constructing a theory of mind. Entire chapters are devoted to these, and after reading them the reader entering the debate on the mind-body problem for the first time will have an over-abundance of food for thought.

An entire chapter is spent on the topic of artificial intelligence. If this book were updated, this chapter would probably have to be considerably expanded, in that many advances have been made in A.I. since this book was first published. Research in A.I. has been rocky, and many promises that were unfullfilled were made in the past about it. But now it seems a more rational and realistic attitude is taken about the claims of A.I. Most everyone involved in it understands that it is an enormously complex problem, and have concentrated their efforts on building intelligent machines from a piece-meal, microscopic approach, i.e. from solving the simplest problems first before tackling the more difficult ones.

A chapter is also devoted to neuroscience. Thanks to imaging technologies and other approaches to mapping the brain, this field has mushroomed in recent years. The author only gives a cursory overview of the brain and the nervous system in this chapter, due no doubt to lack of space. The reverse engineering of the human brain has been pointed to by some researchers in artificial intelligence as being the best hope for building intelligent machines. The dramatic increases in chip technology and bus design have made this belief certainly more feasible. It remains to be seen, via actual empirical research, whether the reverse engineering of the human brain, and then its subsequent implementation in electronic devices, will indeed result in the rise of intelligent machines.

Whatever the future of artificial intelligence and neuroscience, the mind-body problem will no doubt be of interest to philosophers for decades to come. It will be fascinating to see what kinds of conceptual frameworks and methodologies will be employed in attempts to solve this problem. Without doubt some new ideas would be welcome in this regard, as proposals for solutions to the mind-body problem seem to be stuck in a local minimum. But, as the author argues well for, the solution will bring in many areas and possibly some radical ideas, all supported by painstaking experimentation.

It is quite ridiculous that someone should use Paul Churchland's Matter and Consciousness for a graduate class in philosophy of mind. Paul Churchland, for one, never intended it to be so, and certainly was not writing for such an audience. Having said that, Matter and Consciousness qualifies as one of the best brief introductions to pertinent issues in philosophy of mind. Do note, however, that Paul Churchland's focus is philosophical rather than psychological or cognitive. The book begins with a discussion of the mind-body problem and various standard proposed solutions, i.e. various forms of dualism, mind-brain identity theory, functionalism and the like. Each school of thought is presented in an orderly fashion, beginning with a brief outline of the general solution with a couple of examples, then proceeding to sections on the advantages and disadvantages of the school of thought in question.

Now, as with all truly introductory surveys of academic disciplines, the discussions in Matter and Consciousness are superficial from the perspective of more mature students. However, its brevity and clarity make it probably the best introductory text to philosophy of mind around. I read Matter and Consciousness in a single sitting over a cup of tea, and vouch for its accessibility.

Matter and Consciousness also has sections on the psychological, computational and neuroscientific side of things, and although much of the scientific material is dated, these sections still give the uninformed reader a general flavor of ongoing work in those areas, and much to contemplate.

If Matter and Consciousness is being used for an introductory course on philosophy of mind, I would suggest augmenting the material in Matter and Consciousness by selecting appropriate readings from Lycan's Mind and Cognition: An Anthology. Matter and Consciousness was written quite awhile ago, when work in parallel distributed processing in AI was just being resurrected, and way before the embodied cognition revolution. Therefore, it would be an excellent idea to look at section 4 (Mind as a Computer: Machine Functionalism) of Kim's Philosophy of Mind for a fairly theoretical introduction to the ideas behind artificial intelligence, brief selections from Russell and Norvig's introductory AI text or Winston's AI text for an understanding of standard techniques (i.e. search, neural networks, production systems and the like) in AI, and Andy Clark's introduction to the foundations of AI, "Philosophical Foundations", in Artificial Intelligence (Handbook of Perception and Cognition) edited by Margaret Boden.

Jim Paul's seemingly autobiographical story of a self-proclaimed medieval man on a visit to L.A. is highly personable. "Jim" tells the story of his trip, the sights and sounds of his weekend and back stories about his friends, in loving detail. Woven into the stories and details are comparisons of post-modern art and ideas to the medieval worldview, lightened with good humor and a certain humility to both the Middle Ages and the modern world. No academic bore, this man.

However, there are some missed opportunities. The premise is not very strong because "Jim's" feelings about being "a medieval man" are not explored in much personal depth.

Also, a visit to a John Cage exhibit fizzles when the author fails to compare the medieval beliefs about fate with John Cage's fascination with "chance operations." Instead, the chapter hinges mostly on jokes about no one understanding the art.

This pleasant and readable novel ends without any sense of dramatic arc: there is no substantial change in the author's behavior, or his perception of the modern world or the Middle Ages. The reflections of Los Angeles are those of a visitor, not a native. No one else in the story is affected by these ruminations (and occasional tangents). The result is kind of like a witty slide show of someone's vacation, and at other times there is a very lonely sense of a brain churning away in isolation while his friends are tasting the wine and feeling the sand between their toes.

This little book is a gem. Subtitled 'A Fiction', it isn't clear what is really fictionalized. Nothing actually happens here. The narrator, someone named Jim - like the author - leaves San Francisco - where the author lives - to visit friends in L.A. for the weekend. They see an art show, go to dinner, to a Hollywood party, sleep, have breakfast and then go to the beach. That is the sole action, but these prosaic occurances provide the pretext for the author's internal ruminations about the Age of Faith's transition into the Age of Reason. Jim sees himself as still a Medieval man (Jim Paul is described on the book jacket as a 'poet and medievalist')and his internal dialogue becomes a kalidescopic montage of events and arguments about what the modern world is and isn't, and his place in it. Berkeley, Hume, Augustine, William of Ockham, Gallileo, Bertolt Brecht, John Cage, MTV, modern cinema, the Bible, pop music, Chaos Theory, Newton, and numerous anecdotes from his personal expeience and that of his friends and those he meets, are all woven together into a minor but thoroughly satisfying meditation about human intention and life's meaning.

An entertaining notion presented in the book is the concept of the 'suckhole . . . a stupid accident that winds up altering the future you had in mind.' I will add this to the Cosmic Joker as an explanatory principle to use as needed.

On the whole, this book is a very pleasant and fun way to spend an afternoon, and provides enough grains of thought for the mind to grind on for days more.

I really did enjoy this book for the moments it gave me to look at the world and go "WOW," that is an odd way to come at reality! The author succeeds in suspending time for his reader and allowing us to live briefly in the possibility of many odd philosophies, such as the non-existence of silence, the all-encompassing nature of fate or alternately superstition, and not being able to read without speaking the words.

For the images this book has left in my mind, I enjoyed it. However, I have to say that I did not really get some of the philosophical points, especially around marginalizing the possibility of God. And there were vast parts about his friends that I really just skipped over, looking for the philosophical gems.

If I had friends that talked like this guy wrote, I wouldn't read a whole lot!

This is a review of the first edition; I don't know the second edition.

Yesterday I looked up Emerson, Lake, and Palmer and was told that drummer Carl Palmer was born in 1941. Then I looked up Asia and was told that he was born in 1951. Which is it? Or was he born in neither year? I looked up The Nice, keyboardist Keith Emerson's former group, and was told that the album "Autumn To Spring" was compiled from songs recorded from 1967 to 1972. I dug out my old "Autumn To Spring" vinyl disc and learned that in fact the songs on it were all recorded in late 1967 or early 1968. There is no entry at all for King Crimson, bassist and singer Greg Lake's former group. There is no entry at all for the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the most significant and influential fusion group ever to record. Under Suzi Quatro there is no mention at all of the Mike Quatro Jam Band in which she played bass. In fact, I can't look up anything in this book or even browse through it without becoming very frustrated.

1) If there isn't room to include King Crimson and the Mahavishnu Orchestra then there certainly isn't room to include the gratuitous, self-indulgent, puerile, and awkwardly expressed opinons of the editor and contributers. If this must be abbreviated then let's stick to the facts.

2) But first let's get the facts straight. This book is wrong about what I do happen to know approximately fifty percent of the time (I'm not exaggerating), so I simply can't afford to trust it about what I don't know.

3) We are treated to an extensive autobigraphical essay concerning the editor, in which we learn that his mother played the radio and that he worked ten years in a car factory. In fact, a book such as this ought to have been put together by a musician: someone with formal musical training or professional musical experience.

The several different contributors to this book tend to emphasise different aspects of the musicians and their performances, resulting in some highly personal reviews. The quality of writing varies a bit, too. The last word on The Carpenters, for example, reads: "Karen's solo album was finally released '96, making some fans wonder how long she would have lived if she had been allowed to be herself"; what does this mean, exactly? It's clumsy and ambiguous writing. The book is littered with examples such as this. The editor, Donald Clarke, makes his preferences and prejudices abundantly clear, which is sometimes entertaining but more often irritating. The book as a whole is an uneven blend of reference and personal opinion. It's fun to skim, but I was disappointed.

I used this "encyclopedia" (1000 page book) to familiarize myself more with musicians I know well, vaguely remember and wasn't familiar with at all. I am very interested in the reasons why people make certain types of music, and the connections between and influences upon them. This book includes so many, many musicians and groups from the last 100 years or so--all genres, with a little information about each so you get the idea. It's amazing who was whose friend or where certain people hooked up before they became famous, etc. If someone had an influence on trends or other musicians, they're probably in this book! If you're into the history of music at all, this is a great source. I found a lot of good CDs researching this book. Probably there are other such books out there, but this is the one my local library had!

I've read dozens of end times novels and to me this one seems juvenile and very predictable. It portrays the Israeli Defense Force as villans and idiots. Try James Beauseigneur or Grant Jeffrey for thier excellent prophetic novels.

I have just finished this book. It was a real page turner!! Not quite sure what to make of the code itself as he writes more about this in the appendix at the end of the story. The book itself was great...encouraged me to "step out on a limb" for Christ. I believe that this book has acted as a stepping stone in my own personal growth. All of Paul Meiers books have been excellent. I think the key passage in the entire book also rolls up Christianity in the one sentence saying..."To follow Christ is to die." This is not rocket science, just simple acts of faith. In his books, he encourages the believer to carry on. The be the good and faithful servant! Great book!

Sneaking through customs, deciphering Bible Codes, trying to warn authorities, avoiding capture, on the run from various factions. Can they make a difference in God's Prophetic Time Clock? There is barely time to assimilate all the Bible data as you run with the characters from one scene to the next.

Where is the sequel? What happens next? This was great! If you like the Left Behind Series, or Grant Jeffery & Angela Hunt's "By Dawns Early Light," don't miss this Thriller!!