The author's readable style helps a lot. Also, interesting background material and history begin each chapter, and some industrial processes--glass-making, for example--are explained more fully. You won't regret reading this book, but you may be inclined to sell it when you're through.

This book is a must have for every body who is in the architecture field...it's worth every penny..

Simply put, this is one of the best technical textbooks I've ever read. It's basic stuff for someone just starting out in the discipline of architecture, but I'm keeping it as a reference for future professional use. It is clearly written and well illustrated and worth it's high price. I wish Allen would now write a book on Environmental Control Systems--everything in that field is too dry and too technical.

You really do have to be a Catholic to truly appreciate this wonderful book. As a Catholic schoolgirl entering her eleventh year in Catholic school (scary, isn't it?), I can fully relate to this. I honestly don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my entire life.

You know what the funniest thing about this book is? Everything in it is true...from the different kinds of nuns to Father What-a-Waste (sigh); from the description of mortal and venial sins to the purchasing of pagan babies. Well, they don't sell pagan babies anymore, but they did in my mother's day.

Even a staunch Catholic like my grandmother would have to crack a smile at the descriptive, colorful language and the abfab portrayal of the sometimes ridiculous traditions of the world's most scandalous, under-fire church. This book is a must-read for all Roman Catholics, practicing or no.

I laughed all the way through this, which must be a sin! If you are a Catholic like me you will remember everything this book talks about. In fact, I had forgotten a lot of it. I'm a little surprised it did not go into Knights of Columbus Halls (a.k.a. - the Catholic bar) and Bingo (a.k.a. - Catholic gambling) a little more. But heck, they sure covered everything else. I have to go now, I have to finish crossing myself and say a few dozen hail Mary's.

...because if you went to Catholic school, you can relate. I first read this book ten years ago when I was in Catholic school, and the nuns didn't take it away from me (amazing!). I laughed my a** off. For those of you who have read it and aren't Catholic, yes, we do practice for everything, yes, the nuns are that bad (but they don't have clickers anymore). This book is hilarious. Please, please get it and read it, cover to cover. You will laugh every time you read it.

Another peoples champion with partial insider knowledge trying to work out why the establishment are covering up/avoiding the UFO issue. This ordered thesis is a slice of UFO investigation from 30 years ago - have we moved on? not really. Very much along the lines of Donald Keyhoe and his crusade to highlight the circus that was called the Condon Report. This is someone who sounds credible, more so than our governments. Another essential for Ufoligists

It isn't often that any book can be considered the "most important" or "most influential" in the field that it studies, but Dr. J. Allen Hynek's "UFO Experience" probably does qualify as the most important study of the UFO phenonmenon ever written. Why? Unlike most UFO books which are written by "true believers" who look uncritically at UFOs and whose authors have little or no scientific expertise, Hynek's "UFO Experience" has both the credentials and the objectivity to be taken seriously. Hynek was a respected astronomer at Northwestern University and spent twenty years (1949-1969) as the chief scientific analyst for the US Air Force's Project Blue Book, the government's official study of the UFO phenomenon. What makes Hynek especially believable is that he started out as a skeptic - he thought UFO's were "nonsense" and helped the Air Force to debunk most sightings. But as the years passed Hynek gradually became convinced that some UFO reports were not hoaxes or weather balloons or stars or some other "normal" phenonmena and that they might represent something extraordinary - even ET visitation from other planets. In the late 1960's he became openly critical of Blue Book's handling of the UFO sightings it was receiving. When the Condon Report was published in 1969 and stated that science had nothing to gain from taking UFO reports seriously, Hynek decided to set up his own organization - with as many credible scientists as possible - to continue to study UFO reports in a serious and scientific way. In 1972 he published the "UFO Experience" in part as a rebuttal to the Condon Report's dismissal of the UFO phenomenon. He points out that although the Condon Report claimed that UFO sightings were "useless" to science, the Report couldn't find "normal" explanations for one-third of the sightings it examined, and had to list them as "unexplained". The "UFO Experience" still makes what many people believe to be the strongest scientific argument that UFOs deserve serious study by qualified scientists. Much of the book discusses the "Close Encounter" UFO sightings which clearly fascinated Hynek. A "Close Encounter of the First Kind" was a UFO observed at extremely close range - within 500 feet. Hynek notes that the closeness of the object helps eliminate the possibility that the witness saw an "ordinary" object - an airplane or a star, for example. A "Close Encounter of the Second Kind" is one in which the UFO physically interacts with the witness - their car shuts off, the UFO leaves burn marks on the ground, etc. And a "Close Encounter of the Third Kind" is one in which the witness actually sees "UFOnauts" either inside or outside the UFO. This last category was used as the title of Steven Spielberg's famous 1978 movie - Spielberg was an admirer of Hynek and gave him a cameo role in the movie. The book is well-written, but it is a "scientific" work and the reader should know that it sometimes contains technical and scientific language and theories. Dr. Hynek pulls no punches in his criticism of the Condon Report or other scientists who choose to ignore the evidence he cites. In short, although nearly 30 years have passed since it was published, Hynek's "UFO Experience" remains one of the best-argued scientific examinations of the UFO phenomenon. If you're interested in learning about UFOs, then this book is a good place to start. (A good "companion" volume to this book is the "Hynek UFO Report", published five years after the "UFO Experience" and which discusses actual UFO cases taken directly from the files of Project Blue Book).

I'm working on a web services project using Java and purchased this book. There wasn't any coverage on web services. I supplimented this title with Java, The Complete Reference that covers web servers. Otherwise, this book is OK

The book is written with a good outline on each subject, however, it does not follow-up the same for each subject. For example, the section on JavaMail is good with multiple examples (except for a serious error in one of those examples). While they somewhat duplicate the examples in that chapter with a few variations, another chapter in the book will have much less supporting information. What I would criticize most about this book is the level of information written on each subject differs between chapters and within chapters. There is no real consistency of detail or emphasis. I also would expect a revision in the near future because of a few errors in the book (mostly typos). In defense of the book, I must say that about 75% of all programming books seem to do the same thing... that is being inconsistent with their level of information.

"J2EE Unleashed" covers the major aspects of the Java 2 Enterprise Edition. The three main pieces (servlets, JSPs, and EJBs) are each well covered with good examples. JNDI, JDBC, JavaMail and JMS are each given a chapter and XML is also covered. The strength of the book, though, is its coverage of designing J2EE architectures. For example, servlets are explained but then the authors go beyond the explanation to show how servlets fit into an overall J2EE architecture. Model 2 controller architecture is covered and Apache Struts is discussed as an example of using servlets as controllers. According to the publisher, "The goal of this book is not to teach the J2EE specification but to illustrate the best practices for developing J2EE applications." In fact, it does both. The example application which is used throughout the book is well designed to cover all the pieces of J2EE. I do have two complaints about the book. First, it concentrates too much on the SilverStream Application Server getting down to the level of showing screen shots of deployment wizards. Second, the book could have used some editing to give it a better flow. J2EE architecture is explained before any of the pieces that make up the architecture are discussed. EJB session beans are used to demonstrate how to use JDBC before EJBs are covered. Overall, however, the book is well done and can stand up against any of the books covering this complex topic.

Dear fellow readers: I recently read Schaum's outline of feedback and control systems. This book was recommended to me as a text that will give me a clear understanding of control systems. I am sorry to say that this book did not meet my original expectations. The basic concepts are very well illustrated in the first two chapters, but then it dives into explaining the mathematics of control systems (differential equations, z-transform etc.). They're simply too much emphasis of the vocabulary, which is down right confusing. The book also fails to give a clear picture of how different design methods (e.g. Root-Locus) can be employed in a real situation. It is my recommendation that this book should not be the only source of information, and must be used in junction with another control book. This statement holds true especially for university students. In a positive note, there are many examples that can help the reader gain insightful knowledge in this subject, and it also does a good job giving an overall picture of how different concepts relate to each other. These alone are good enough reasons to have a look at this book when studying control systems.

I'm currently taking a Feedback Control Theory course at the undergrad level, and I think this book is an excellent exposition of classical control theory. Our text for the course is Feedback Control of Dynamic Systems, written by people from Stanford. Schaum's Outline actually has more *theory* than the textbook we are using. It eliminates all of the frills and pretty colored diagrams in favor of exposing everything an undergraduate would have trouble with. And for those people who think the emphasis is only on problem solving, this "Outline" has more mathematical proof than the book from Stanford I just mentioned! I highly recommend using this book to get off on the right foot in control systems, whether you are an engineer just learning the material or an undergraduate; it solidifies the foundations of the theory so that practical problems will come more easily. Also, it is a practical book as well.

I only bought this book after I went through undegraduate control and digital control classes. And after getting very fragmented knowledge of these disciplines, this book was very good in helping me sort it out. Yes, if you don't know a thing about control theory or don't have basic math background, it probably is hard to grasp without any other sourses. But if you have some basic understanding of the subject, then it is a very good review and reference for the classical control theory. I used this book for review before taking a PhD preliminary exam in controls, and it helped a lot. Now I am using it for the same reason for the job I just started. I like the way it describes digital control theory in parallel with the continuous-time controls, which is the best way to understand the discrete-time tools, instead of taking a whole other class starting from scratch. Constant examples to illustrate the theory are very good, so are the excersises. Mind you, this book doesn't go into details like some 800pp. volumes but it doesn't leave out anything important either. I highly recommend this book to undegrad and grad students, as well as a reference for the engineers.

This book is a very good introduction to special teams from both a team and individual perspective. Allen was one of the first coaches to commit equal time to the practicing and coaching of special teams. Although the book covers most evryhting in great detail, it can be very elementary at times. Most good special teams units employ a multiple approach just like the offense and defense. There are shortcomings in this area but, with a little imagination, you should be able to add to the base of knowledge given here.

George Allen gives an indepth look at all phases of the kicking and punting game. Full of different coaching points, schemes, ideas, and scouting charts. Very helpful for new ideas or to strengthen your current beliefs.

The Book of Songs (Shi Jing) is one of the seminal works of Chinese Civilization, along with the Book of Changes (Yi Jing), the Book of History (Shu Jing) and the Book of Rites (Li Chi). All four of these books were already old when Confucius flourished, and tradition states that they were edited by him into their present form.

Old indeed they are, and virtually inaccessible even to those fairly proficient in Chinese. A mere knowledge of the Classical idiom is no guarantee of understanding them; The Yi Jing in its original Chinese is little more than a skein of characters strung together, each one of them generally to be understood on its own rather than as part of a sentence. The Shi Jing is a book of poetry, but it is poetry from a remote antiquity; it contains many words that occur nowhere else in Chinese literature, the poems usually don't rhyme any more (yes, Chinese poetry rhymes!) and no doubt some of the poems date back to an extremely remote shamanistic past in Chinese history. They are venerated for the moral message contained in them, and also for the spontaneity to life that they express - a quality that is prized so highly in East Asian culture. It is a taproot of East Asian thought, just as the psalms and Homer are for the West.

Which makes Waley's translation all the more amazing, in that he could actually produce a work that is so absorbing and edifying. Waley was something of a genius of translation; he never visited the Far East - he claimed it would ruin his impression of it - but he translated so much of the best of Chinese and Japanese literature, and he did it so well. Some of the items he translated have never been attempted by anybody else, and while there are other translations of the Shi Jing his is far and away the best one to read.

Those who are familiar with Waley's other works may find the book a disappointment, which is unfortunate. This is an extremely difficult work to translate, much harder than the Analects, to say nothing of the popular Chinese novels that Waley also did into English. The problem is bringing the material to life, and I feel that Waley did as much as could be done with it.

This book was, I believe, out of print for quite a few years. I'm glad to see it's back.

If you are a beginner or an experienced SQL developer this is the book for you. Full of had to find details and tips

This volume is a quite complete course in low speed range aerodynamics. Even if the authors limit themselves to incompressible and irrotational fluid fieds, they present a complete course giving a substantial theorical apparatus with a logically developed computational methods.

The mathematical level is really excellent, since the presentation is thoroghly worked out with detailed explanation of each formulae or passage. The most enticing feature of this tome is the systematic treatment of computational methods with different approaches to them to obtain the full range of solutions. This is achived by implementing additional level of complexity along the process, showing the dependence of each function in numerical modelling.

Altogether, this book is a good start for understanding the computational techniques and the classic theory.