Dimitri Bilenkin's style is sort of like Isaac Asimov's. His sensibility is a little like Asimov crossed with Robert Sheckley. (What? Don't like Sheckley? Forget I said that; read it anyway.) This book contains the PERFECT SCIENCE FICTION STORY--not just escapism, or entertainment, but speculative fiction that serves as a caution to future generations. If I had the power, I'd tell the schools to make "Stranger's Eyes" required reading. Hey, it would do some good. And that's not the only one! Oh, oh, it's brilliant! Somebody reprint this book!

For my background reading on Central and East European EU Candidate Countries, I have been reading several books on the history of the Balkans. For the period 500-1453 I took the book from Prof. Obolensky (for 1453-early 20th century I recommend L. Stavrianos, Misha Glenny, and G. Hodos). I found the book clearly written and well set out. The central message of this study runs like a red thread thorugh the book. The influence of the Byzantine East Roman Empire on the law, culture, religion and art of the countries in that region is shown to be of major importance and is clearly one of the major shaping actors in the early history of the Balkans. Yet at the same time during this period there was no slavish following of whatever came from Byzantium. The complicated story of attraction and repulsion, the ongoing flow and struggles with the 'Byzantine Commonwealth' (i find prof. Obolenksy's expression in this contect quite useful) of the different peoples in the Balkans makes good reading and, for me, gives met the sense of a good first grasp of the outset of history on this fascinating region. This book is not always easy to read and not only for beginners, but the more rewarding for it.

After the fall of Rome, Byzantium was the greatest, richest, most prestigious city in the known world. It was the center of the Orthodox religion and a great center of culture. It was also the target for every barbarian tribe who wanted a piece of the wealth land and culture.

Dimitri Obolensky's readable book achieves two purposes. First he describes the relations between the Byzantine empire and her neighbors. Obolensky explains how the Byzantines used one barbarian tribe against another, like the Avars, Slavs, Bulgars, Pechenegs, Russians and Khazars. He also shows how the Byzantines used religion to influence the tribes and gain control over them. Eventually the barbarian tribes worshipped Byzantium, but did not trust it.

Secondly Obolensky describes how the barbarian cultures like the Bulgars and the Russians adopted the culture and civilization of Byzantium. The new comers learned art, literature, law and religion from Byzantium.

This book covers the period from 500 AD to the fall of Byzantium in 1453,
starting with a description of the geography, roads and trade routes the Byzantines used, and their strategic importance. Then Obolensky recounts relations in order of region, from the Balkans, then east-central Europe and finally the coast of the black sea.
Obolensky shows how the Byzantines became the source of legitimacy among the states that made up the commonwealth like the Bulgars and the Russians. Finally he recounts how the barbarians learned art, religion, law and literature, and civilization in general from the Byzantines.

The book includes many well placed maps and photos that make this complicated subject clearer. Obolensky's book is a must read book for anyone interested in the history of Byzantium or medieval eastern Europe.

I can't praise highly enough this well researched, masterful look at the mechanisms of cultural diffusion in the Balkans and Russia in the Byzantine period. Obolensky, an unquestioned leader in the field of Byzantine studies, has put together a cogent, precise and elegantly written book that, while not really for the layman, is clear enough for most persons with some familiarity with the topic. He demonstrates the role of what he calls "intermediaries", e.g. merchants, missionaries and mercenaries, in spreading Byzantium's unique Graeco-Romano-Christian culture throughout the Slavic world. A little attention is paid to Byzantium's influence on the West and on the structures of the Ottoman state, but the real focus realy is on the Balkan states. And, well, where have you seen that lately?

In my point of view, Dimitri wrote an excelent book with a simple language and exactly examples, i am starting to read the and the first pages are very interesting. I began to read this book, because i want to find, How to calculeted the reliability of a system with several sub-systems in serie and in paralel ?.

If you're a reliability engineer, or are planning to get into the field, you need this book ! However, if you have his other books "Reliability & Life Testing Handbook Vol1 & 2" you dont need this ..a lot of material is repeated in the two books which have similair sounding titles.

While other reliability books may confuses you by providing incomplete picture of Reliability, Dr. Dimitri Kececioglu provide us a whole picture of Reliability with exactly examples and switching criteria to select a right Reliability Calculation method.

I use this reference book for 4 years and still think it's useful.

I loved the way the writer takes you the reader into the lives and the minds of so many different people. Because you never know quite who the narrator is at any one moment, you are never sure if you are being lied to or told the truth. "Harvey" is like a map through and into langugage itself, and the writer is your tour guide for this region of fear and laughter--with some even spicy and sexy scenes along the way too!

'A Larger sense of Harvey,' Dimitri Anastasopoulos's first book, is not the coming-of-age struggle nor the self-therapy worked out on the page that too many first novels tend to be. No dysfunctional family saga here, no alcoholic husband, no broken home. This book is more an acrobatic dive head-first into the intricacies of language itself. Even the locales in which the book is primarily set ... Belarus, Finland and the Arctic ... warn the reader that this is not the stuff of most debut fiction.

The main character, Harvey Roketsch, is a Belarussian grew up outside of Minsk. His 'colossal obsession' consists of minutely detailing his life in a series of journals. The idea seems to be 'to generate a world en masse ... a view into life that synthesized emotions and translated the volatility of experience into something he could decipher.' The novel is basically a selection of these journals sandwiched together. The fun starts, however, when we realize that many of the diaries have been translated into langoo-adj, a language secretly concocted at a research center in the Artic, and that the translations are not exactly accurate. While the truth tends to be distorted in the process, the careful reader will find it more clearly reflected in the discrepancies between the originals and the langoo-adj facsimiles.

The translator of the journals, Martin Ambrose, bears a passing resemblance to the bumbling scholar in Nabakov's 'Pale Fire', deleting and elaborating as he sees fit. 'I'm in charge of cutting the imprecision, overabstraction and profligacy of words that engender unclean reasoning, words that distort the psychology of tongue-flappers,' he explains. His inflated sense of self-importance and off-the-mark observations account for most of the hilarity in the book.

Bete, who is in charge of the langoo-adj project, schemes to replace the organically grown mother tongues of nations with her laboratory-designed uber-language. Through langoo-adj, Bete believes that language becomes 'simple, disciplined. No extraneous letters, therefore no extraneous thought. Spartan humor develops: laziness resisted. Words are precise: hence, life is clarified and streamlined.' And yes, here we have echoes of Orwell and the various speaks of '1984.' 'A Larger Sense,' however, is too comical to make a genuine comparison.

While Anastasopolous is a deft sentence smith with a sure sense of rhythm, some of the sections get away from him and he slips into rambling. The other problem is that the mostly self-contained journals are often dislocated, spatially as well as chronologically, and give the book a disjointed feel. At times, following the narrative line is a little confusing.

In spite of its flaws, 'A Larger Sense of Harvey' will reward the reader who is as interested in a metaphysics of language as in what happens next. In one of the finest passages in the book, Ambrose comments on a church procession. 'Once you realize that rituals can, at most, only honor ancient events, that they can't present biblical memories exactly as they happened, then you'll realize that rituals, written down, poetically recited or repeated, lack the event's original luster, the semblance of richness. In effect, they become empty.' Replacing 'rituals' with 'words' and adding 'experience' to 'events' (ancient or otherwise) we have a thought-provoking statement on the shortcomings of language.

This first novel is a remarkable achievement. An attempt not just to experiment, but to write something wholly different. The incredible events are only one aspect of the exploration that the book itself presents. An interest in language and translation underscores and gives shape to the ornery plot that takes the reader all over Eastern Europe. It's a complex book but in the right ways: a kind of language feast. By the end, the central figure Harvey emerges larger, as we do, for the exploration. "A word can liberate a man," he says. I'm a believer.

The text is sometimes a little dull and difficult to follow but the scope of the information presented is wide ranging and concise enough to keep you going. It was very enjoyable to learn about stuctures that you don't often see mentioned in other works. This is a very good addition to a library. I think that sometimes the text drifts from its intended purpose but the drifts are all pleasant.

Reading or browsing "The Empress and Architect" is a thrilling experience. Along with the great reproductions of Cameron's works, the Author of the book offers insightful and precise vision of syncretic relations between Russian and British culture. Unfortunately for Russia, the momentum of these cultural relatiions was abruptly ended after Bolshevik revolution of 1917. "The Empress and Architect" is truly one of the best books on Russian Classical Architecture published in English.

Boston University graduate Jayna Monroe lies near death in a remote tomb of the Great King Amony. She fell into the area she currently remains with no one else nearby to rescue her. Knowing she will die soon, Jayna knows no one will mourn her parting. She stoically interprets the hieroglyphics that explain that Amony's queen killed him.

Not too long after that, Jayna fades only to revive at the court of Amony in the body of the queen also named Jayna. The Egyptologist vows to stop the queen and her fellow conspirators from murdering Amony. As she fails to persuade Amony about the danger he faces, Jayna looks more and more like the person most likely to assassinate the pharaoh. Meanwhile, Jayna falls in love with Amony and now is even willing to risk her life to keep him safe.

ETCHED IN STONE is a pleasant historical fiction time travel work with some romance elements in the plot. The enticing story line centers on Jayna's efforts to keep Amony safe. Though a student of Egyptology, Jayna adjusts too easily to her new world. She is a great character for readers to follow as she has one adventure after another. The support cast, including Amony, provide period depth with tidbits about Ancient Egypt and help the audience understand Jayna better. Dimitri Eann furnishes fans of Ancient historical tales with a well-written, fun to read novel.

Harriet Klausner

Etched in Stone is a highly sensual, time-travel romance. Jayna, an ambitious Egyptologist, is trapped in a tomb, dying, when she reads the hieroglyphs on the walls, telling the story of an Egyptian queen who killed her husband. Somehow, she travels back in time and inhabits the killer-queen's body, who shares her name. She learns that the queen is party to a conspiracy to assassinate her husband, the great Pharoah Amony. But Jayna has no wish to kill anyone, nor can she stay away from Amony. Though her life may be in forfeit, she must find a way to tell Amony the truth. Later, Jayna wonders if she was sent back to a previous life to prevent her true love's death. Can she change 4,000 years worth of history that has been Etched in Stone? Throughout the book, the heady atmosphere and intricate details weave an enchanting story of the times and people of ancient Egypt.

this is a book made up of 90% photographs and you can't even find the photographers name. his name should be more promnate on the cover than the title.

I like it. Actually sometimes I just pick this book and flip in one page, then in another and so on...'Cause this is more a collecton of sentences form various rappers speaking 'bout different subjects'. As a hiphop fan, I like to konw their point of views. Also, the book is well-made, top quality graphics, good paper...I like it a lot.

This book covers the very foundations of data communications for the design engineer. It contains some intense mathematics in some areas, but if you've had high quality college math (year of calculus and some engineering type math), you can handle it. The queueing theory, multiaccess theory (ALOHA to ethernet and beyond), and optimal routing theory are actually foundations for many aspects of data comm. If you're in datacomm and don't have a solid education in that area, this book is for you.

This is really the kind of book you would like if you are intersted in learning the fundemantals of data networks as well as if you are trying to understand the idea in the network optimization and network analysis and performance

'Data Networks' proves an excellent source for Delay/Queue Models, Routing concepts and Flow Control. Most Topics cover concepts as well as provide research material. A Great reference and study text.

This book is the one that is quite accessible both to the beginner as well as the professional. If you had a strong background in Signals and Systems, Proakis will take you through a mathematical tour of DSP. With plenty of examples you would find this book a lot easier than Oppeinheim's. The best of the breed is Stanley's Digital Signal Processing. Since this book is now out of print , the one by Proakis will come a close second.

A lot of examples make this bulkiest of the DSP books, however. For the new comer Richard Lyon's and Steve Smith's book will help them to understand this book well. And don't forget the Matlab series book authored by Proakis. it is the best to learn DSP through Matlab- no doubt about it.

This book is very well suited for a two semester DSP course. I have studied this book for two DSP courses. The first covered chapters 1 through 7 and the second course covered chapters 8 through 12. Chapters 1 through 7 cover basic DSP theory such as discrete signals and systems, Z-transforms, DTFT and DFT, FFT, and digital filter implementation structures. Chapter-4 on Frequency Domain analysis of discrete time systems is a very key chapter in this book. It covers some fundamental concepts of the transfer functions of discrete time systems and the concepts of Magnitude Response and Phase response. Pole-Zero methods and basic filter structures including Resonators, Allpass Filters and Minimum/Maximum phase systems are covered, which I felt were extremely useful. This book is very well written however, at times some steps in mathematical derivations are ommitted. A good professor/instructor can help with this deficiency of the textbook.

Chapters 11 on Linear Prediction and Optimal Filtering and Chapter 12 on Power Spectrum Estimation are a bit mathematically involved, but will prepare the student/reader with excellent skills in statistical signal processing. As a working professional in the field of DSP and Digital Communications, I find topics covered in this book extremely useful. With a working knowledge of MATLAB and topics learned from this text book one can find himself/herself adequately equipped to tackle DSP problems in real life. It would have been rather useful if a chapter or two on Adaptive Filters were included as a natural extention of Optimal Filtering, just to give a general idea of how adaptive digital systems work, and are designed. I consistently use this book at work, and has proved to be an extremely valuable resource.

This book covers all the fundamental aspects of the digital signal processing and, like the other works of Prof. J. Proakis, is written in a rigorous but at the same time clear mathematical language; furthermore the author gives practical examples of the applications of the theories exposed. In my opinion a very good introduction and a complete reference text for people who work in the DSP field.

A refreshing diversion from the typical aura book, "Change Your Aura Change Your Life" delves into the theory of auras and the use of meditation to focus and change your life. Most similar books spend a great deal of time discussing the spiritual aspects of auras and leave very little space to understanding and using them to improve yourself. That is where this book differs. It starts with a step-by-step guide to understanding the aura; it's shape, colors, and meaning. This is followed by a section on how to change your aura via meditation. This section details the colors to meditate on, where to concentrate, what to visualize, and similar factors. The third and final section is about using the meditations and aura focus to change mental and emotional states such as anger, grief, worry, forgiveness, affirmations, and visualizations. The book contains several four-color illustrations in the middle of the book to help the reader visualize and understand the text. For those interested in auras and using them as a focus point for meditation as a method of change this is a recommended read.

Change Your Aura Change Your Life: A Step-By-Step Guide To Unfolding Your Spiritual Power by clairvoyant and metaphysical educator Barbara Y. Martin is an informed and informative "self-help" guide to harnessing personal spiritual energy, and utilizing effective metaphysical techniques to improve one's aura, feel better, look better, and enjoy life more. Meditative prayers, counseling, spiritual wisdom, and the developing/exercising power over oneself, are all presented and discussed in this inspirational, motivational, metaphysical guide.

I found this book to be a great read. There is a lot of information to digest, but the author writes in a reader friendly style. This book covers what the aura looks like, what the colors say about you, and how to work with power rays to change different parts of your life such as relationships, healing, depression, and prosperity. There are over 90 meditations that are very well spelled out and clear - anyone can use these to better their lives. An excellent how-to tome on the aura!